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I think one factor in people quitting their jobs today is the increased savings rate over the pandemic https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT https://fred.s

I think one factor in people quitting their jobs today is the increased savings rate over the pandemic https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT. Many people have saved up so much during the pandemic that they are no longer living paycheck-to-paycheck and are not willing to trade their time for a wage. Maybe this is a short term phenomena and people's saving will go down and they will start living paycheck-to-paycheck again and they will be more willing to to trade their time for wages.

onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
There's two parts. A lot of people made a lot more money (from stimulus), and a lot of people have cut their expenses dramatically (because of lockdowns). When you spend less money, it's a lot easier to forgo making more money. And as you mentioned, it's especially easy when you have more savings.
thraxil 5y ago
There might be some truth to that for middle/upper class SWE types like those who frequent HN that were able to work remotely during the pandemic and just had their expenses lowered. The article is mostly about low wage workers though and the situation was largely the opposite for them. Almost everyone I know in that category had hours cut while businesses were shut down. Stimulus checks helped but didn't make up for most of the lost wages. I think a lot of them are basically reaching a point of hopelessness where they feel like there's no way for them to get ahead. If you don't see a light at the end of the tunnel, why put up with an awful job in the meantime? Those who didn't get their hours cut instead often had to do more work and have been run ragged (think delivery drivers, etc). My partner is a university lecturer and quit her job recently in large part because she's had to add online and blended courses, which involved much more prep time (basically doubling her workload) but with no increase in her pay. She didn't quit because we had a bit more savings.

onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago

There's two parts. A lot of people made a lot more money (from stimulus), and a lot of people have cut their expenses dramatically (because of lockdowns). When you spend less money, it's a lot easier to forgo making more money. And as you mentioned, it's especially easy when you have more savings.

thraxil 5y ago

There might be some truth to that for middle/upper class SWE types like those who frequent HN that were able to work remotely during the pandemic and just had their expenses lowered. The article is mostly about low wage workers though and the situation was largely the opposite for them. Almost everyone I know in that category had hours cut while businesses were shut down. Stimulus checks helped but didn't make up for most of the lost wages. I think a lot of them are basically reaching a point of hopelessness where they feel like there's no way for them to get ahead. If you don't see a light at the end of the tunnel, why put up with an awful job in the meantime? Those who didn't get their hours cut instead often had to do more work and have been run ragged (think delivery drivers, etc). My partner is a university lecturer and quit her job recently in large part because she's had to add online and blended courses, which involved much more prep time (basically doubling her workload) but with no increase in her pay. She didn't quit because we had a bit more savings.