great resignation could soon be over.
Figures from the Colorado Depart
of Labor and Employment show tht
the number of people quitting tr
jobs is down from historic high.
Labor experts say resignations
grew following the pandemic,
but that job market volatility
is starting to settle down.
So joining us now to talk
about it, the statistics,
what they mean to our economy.
Chris works, of course,
the managing editor,
the Denver Business Journal.
So what are these numbers?
I mean, how?
Because it's not just employmen,
unemployment,
where we're diving into
these a little deeper,
aren't we?
Yeah, we're talking about quits.
And what quits are is a measuret
of the Bureau of Labor Statistis
talks about separations.
Quits are people voluntarily leg
their job, just like the word implies.
It's not necessarily retirement,
It's simply people who.
Are leaving a job, whether theye
leaving the workforce or whether they're,
you know, going to another job.
Most often it's people who
are going to another job.
What we've seen is that followig
the pandemic last spring,
the quit rate for Colorado was ,
and that was an extraordinarily high number.
Numbers coming out this spring show that
it's down to about 2.6%, and th.
Fairly typical.
That's pre pandemic levels.
In fact we have a chart here.
Now you can see that historically there are
two lulls there that you know about 2.5%.
The quit rate during the
Great Recession of 2008,
2009 coming out, and even until 2013,
people stayed in their jobs.
The quit rate went down to 1.5%.
And then we had this phenomenon,
you know,
following the pandemic.
So
it's a Great Recession,
a great resignation,
and sometimes it's not so great.
Yeah, no, but we're not getting
out of numbers is the vibe.
Like, I get the feeling a lot oe
hybrid job models that started or people
working from home when people sd
they want you to come back into work,
that seemed to trigger a lot of
people about like, you know,
I really enjoyed working from h.
I think I could do it from here.
Is that can you get a vibe
out of these numbers?
I think there is a case to be made for that.
The other thing that we saw was people
decided, you know, I'm not realy
happy working and doing what I'm doing.
There was great unrest that
came out of the pandemic.
People wanted more money.
They wanted greater advancement.
I looked at Pew Research that
showed those were the top two
reasons why people left their j.
Now we have a situation where we
coming down to what is normal, right?
Not only and getting back to no.
Yeah, and we have some economic
uncertainty right now.
Are we going into a recession?
Do I want to give up my job rigt
now and say jump to another job
where I don't have seniority?
And what happens if there are layoffs?
So we see people starting to settle down.
So now people are like,
I mean you you think of like the
number of pilots that took early
retirement and people that said,
you know what, this job is good.
But I'm tired of being treated like dirt.
The Excel bill comes every month
and then all of a sudden like,
oh, I got a mortgage.
So is that why?
I mean then they finally,
is this good news or bad news in general?
I'm glad you asked that
because it's not good or bad,
it's just indicating.
Human behavior.
Now for employers, it's better ,
if you know people aren't quitt,
that's good for the employers.
Think about the money it costs o
recruit and train and then make
on board and all those trendy words. But
from a national level, I mean,
unemployment's now at real low numbers.
I mean, is this, are we in a god
employment economy for employerr
employees or is it is it for everyone?
Well, I talked to the Colorado
Department of Labor and.
Employment and the economist there says,
you know, quits are an indicati,
they're a good indication of the economy.
What it means is people feel confident
to leave their job, move on to
another job and and feel good a,
you know, what they've done.
When you start,
we saw the the numbers on the c.
When we go into a recession,
you're going to see that quit
rate go hang on to the jobs.
Yeah, let's not move around.
Let's feel stable.
You know maybe the coworker that
keeps leaving his coffee cup ine
kitchen sink is not so annoying is it?
You know you once might
you can deal. Maybe
it could be a whole new
roaring 20s two thousand 20s.
We do have a labor or a job
report coming out tomorrow.
So that initial numbers I saw
that nationally that quit rate.
Bumped up a little bit,
but in the West, I haven't beene
to drill down Colorado numbers .
But in the West, it was fairly .
So people are staying put.
Oh, look for that. Chris Roarke,
thanks as always for joining
us from the managing editor,
the Denver Business Journal. Thank you.