Quits in September Hit a New High

Over 4 million U.S. workers called it quits in September, marking a new high. Many industries saw an increase in quits, but the one that saw the most was “arts, entertainment, and recreation” – quits increased by 56,000 from the prior month. However, in October the U.S. workforce saw more than 2.5% of retired workers make a return to work. This is the highest rate seen since the start of the pandemic and is thought to be partly due to both the increase in vaccination rates and wages.

From highs to lows…the U.S. gross domestic product is forecasted to grow annually at a 4.6% rate in Q4. This is down from the previous expectation of a 5.2% growth rate. When looking at the overall year of 2021, it’s thought that the GDP will rise 5.5% (original estimate was 6.1%). For 2022, the growth estimate is estimated to be 3.9% (original estimate was 4.4%). On the unemployment front, the rate for the quarter is estimated to be 4.5%, which is a decrease of the original estimate of 4.9%.  As far as jobs go, the estimates have shrunk a bit from the original forecasts when looking through Q2 of 2022- average monthly gains are now 469,400 from the original estimate of 508,800.

Economic expansion in the U.S. is thought to continue into 2022 as the Leading Economic Index increased to 118.3 in October, which is an increase of .1% in September and .7% in August.

Technology continues to be on the move as job postings were up 39% year over year in IT, however, when compared to Q3 in 2019, the posting growth rate was flat. The city with the quickest growth in IT job postings is Jacksonville, Florida. When looking at the volume of job postings, the ‘back-end developer/engineer’ was the fastest-growing occupation. Texas continues to be a tough competitor for California as six cities in the state are experiencing tech job growth.

Until next week,

Erin and Team BountyJobs