Record number of Americans resigns from jobs in August

WASHINGTON D.C. A recent report has detailed how the August surge of the Covid Delta variant saw record numbers of Americans resign from their jobs.

The Labor Department said resignations rose by 300,000 to 4.3 million in August, equivalent to 3 percent of the workforce, which is the highest number of unemployed since December 2000 and fell from 4 million in July.

The report also indicated that the number of available jobs dropped to 10.4 million, from a high in the previous month of 11.1 million.

During Delta surge, many more restaurant and hotel workers rose compared to the previous month, as well as those working in jobs serving the public, such as retail and education, which soared 21 percent, while resignations by merchant workers fell 6 percent.

However, fewer manufacturing construction, warehouse and engineering workers resigned while minimal services such as law, engineering and architecture, where most employees can work from home, experienced professional and business resignations.

On Friday the government canceled the job creation for the second consecutive month in September, numbering only 194,000, despite the unemployment rate decreasing from 5.2 percent to 4.8 percent.

Resignations are usually a positive sign for the labor market, as workers tend to leave jobs when they already have new positions or are confident that they can get a new job. The rise seen in August is however unlikely to reflect this trend.