Does it feel like there are an unusual number of going-away parties and cleaned-out desks at your place of employment? It's no illusion — more people are saying "I quit!" than at any time since the good old pre-recession days.
The Society for Human Resource Management took a gander at the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers for the "quit rate" — those who depart under their own steam. What SHRM found was that the number has been high, and it's getting higher. March's total of 2.8 million folks who submitted their letters of resignation was up by 100,000 over February's total and marked the highest quit rate in seven years.
"When the quits rate goes up HR can assume they will need to be prepared for increased voluntary turnover rates because it is a sign that workers are more confident about leaving their jobs and finding new positions," said Jennifer Schramm, SHRM-SCP, manager of workforce trends at SHRM.
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Schramm wasn't ready to declare an emergency, noting that the uptick month over month wasn't huge. However, she cautioned, because it's continuing to increase, employers should be prepared for high turnover in the future.
SHRM said the BLS numbers showed that the retail trade, accommodation, and food services industries reported increasing quit rates, while health care and social assistance resignations fell. Compared to a year ago, the quit rate rose in retail, health care, and hospitality.
"Overall the report indicates that there is a little more churn in the job market as jobs are added and employees leave to find new opportunities," Schramm said.
Job openings fell in March 2015 by 150,000 to 5 million, the second-highest level since 2001.
"Dropping under the 5 million mark would be a concern so it will be interesting to see what next month's report finds," Schramm said.
Other findings from the analysis:
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Over the 12 months ending in March 2015, hires totaled 59.7 million and separations totaled 56.7 million;
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1.7 unemployed people applied for every job opening in March, compared with 1.8 when the recession began; that compared to 6.2 per job during the recession's peak;
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Total separations for March 2015 — including quits, layoffs, and discharges — rose to 5 million from 4.7 million in February;
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There were 1.8 million layoffs and discharges in March 2015, up from 1.6 million in February.
"We now have a job openings and turnover report that is mostly unchanged from the previous month," Schramm said. "There is a lot of discussion right now about how the economy can be read as a glass half empty or half full depending on your temperament. The April jobs numbers weren't bad compared to the first quarter of fairly disappointing numbers but were not so great that we could say those months were an anomaly and now we are out of the woods. This report gives a similar impression."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
