Workers giving up their jobs at fastest pace in a decade
INDIANAPOLIS: Kipp Glenn grew tired of standing for eighthour shifts, assembling steel furnace doors. His knees ached from 25 years on the concrete factory floor. So even after President Donald Trump made his job at Carrier a symbol of American prosperity and vowed to save it, the Indiana native took a buyout.
“What we want to call ‘bluecollar jobs’ are on the way out,” he said.
At a time when the Trump administration argues that creating manufacturing jobs is a critical national goal - even co- ordinating with states on generous subsidy packages to woo blue- collar employers - many factory workers are making a surprising decision: They’re quitting.
Government data shows workers in the sector are giving up their jobs at the fastest pace in a decade. That’s a powerful sign, economists say, that workers think they can find work elsewhere.
Part of this confidence stems from the nation’s 4.3 per cent unemployment rate, a 16-year low. But they say they also fear robots zapping jobs in the future, while many workers have tucked away savings from union- championed raises and retirement benefits.
Leaving steady work, of course, carries risks, and some who quit may elect to stay in the field. As Trump and other politicians have argued, manufacturing pay has historically provided higher wages and more benefits than other types of blue- collar work. And there is no guarantee that these workers, who often possess just a high school diploma, will not encounter new challenges in an economy that favours those with more education. Many others who have been forced out of the industry over the past 20 years because of increased automation and outsourcing have struggled to find equally rewarding work.
Still, analysts say, the increase of people departing reflects a healthy adjustment in an industry that is likely to shrink as technology advances.
“It’s not this apocalyptic scenario that a lot of people make it out to be,” said Michael R. Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a rightleaning Washington think tank. “We shouldn’t be talking about these workers like they’re helpless.”
Carrier came to the nation’s attention last year when Trump excoriated it for sending jobs to Mexico. The company ultimately agreed to preserve some jobs, thanks to a deal with the state government in Indiana - worked out with the Trump team - but some layoffs were still permitted to move forward.
Nearly half of the 337 employees who left Carrier on July 20 in a wave of planned job reductions did so willingly, citing a belief that automation threatened their job security and that they could find or make better work. They also seized a severance package that included a week of pay for every year at the company.
Since Trump declared his candidacy, more factory workers have left their jobs than have been laid off or fired, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The share of employees voluntarily leaving the industry has climbed from 1.1 per cent to 1.6 per cent since June 2015. ( During that period,
It’s not this apocalyptic scenario that a lot of people make it out to be. We shouldn’t be talking about these workers like they’re helpless. Michael R. Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute
the broader economy’s quitting rate barely budged, from two per cent to 2.1 per cent.)
That translates to a hefty pile of resignations.
In June, the most recent month of data available, 194,000 factory workers quit their jobs, while 29,000 retired and 101,000 were dismissed.
Analysts cannot say whether the employees are fleeing for better pay cheques, hopping to another assembly line or exiting the workforce entirely. Overall, manufacturing employment has been growing slowly.
Of those who left jobs at Carrier, one worker took the buyout last month to launch his own concierge business. Another chose to focus on his home-made talk show. Another aims to work as a caregiver, placing her faith in lottery tickets.
And Glenn, 53, is going back to school.
“I didn’t want to suffer another 15 years in there,” he said.
Glenn said he noticed robots creeping into the plant about 18 months ago. A blue- and- grey machine bumped him to another spot in the factory, he said, which pushed a younger employee into a lower-paid role. (Carrier did not comment on the factory’s technological changes.)
“We would have to be ignorant to look away from automation,” he said. “It’s taking things over.” — WP-Bloomberg