A record 4.5M in U.S. quit jobs in November

The number of Americans quitting their jobs is the highest on record as workers take advantage of strong employer demand to pursue better opportunities.

More than 4.5 million people voluntarily left their jobs in November, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That was up from 4.2 million in October and was the most in the two decades that the government has been keeping track.

Yet despite that leverage, an overwhelming majority of Americans say they are worried about inflation — and most say their pay is not keeping up with rising prices. that contrast — evident in survey results released Tuesday — underscores the strange, contradictory moment facing the U.S. economy after two years of pandemic-induced disruptions.

For some workers, particularly at the lower end of the pay scale, the intense competition for labor has created a rare opportunity to demand better pay and working conditions. But for those who cannot change jobs as easily or who are in sectors in which demand is not as strong, rising prices are yet another challenge.

There are signs that the worst of the problems were beginning to ease late last year. The number of job openings posted by employers fell in November, the Labor Department said Tuesday, though it remained high by historical standards. Hiring picked up, too. Earlier data showed that more people returned to the labor force in November, and various measures of supply chain pressures have begun to ease.

But that was before the explosion in coronavirus cases linked to the omicron variant, which has forced airlines to cancel flights, businesses to delay return-to-office plans, and school districts to return temporarily to remote learning.

Americans are pessimistic about the economy. Only 21 percent of adults said their finances were better off than a year ago, according to a survey released Tuesday — down from 26 percent when the question was asked a year earlier, though, by most measures, the economy had improved substantially during that period. The survey of 5,365 adults was conducted last month for the New York Times by Momentive, the online research firm formerly known as Surveymonkey.

Only 17 percent of workers say they have received raises that kept up with inflation over the past year.