Last spring, I blogged about the signs pointing to mass resignations as the COVID pandemic loosened its grip on our daily lives. Now, as we near the end of the year, statistics and probably your own experiences are telling us that the Great Resignation is underway. American workers left 20 million jobs between May and September this year, according to the latest federal data, which is more than 50 percent higher than the resignations handed in during the same period last year. That figure was also 15 percent above the level from spring and summer 2019, when the job market was the hottest it had been in almost 50 years.
In April alone, four million people quit their jobs. Researchers indicate that the bulk of those were retail and service workers emboldened by the government stimulus.