The Big Quit or The Great Resignation

dseag2

dseag2

Dallas, TX
Location
Dallas, TX
Interesting interview with Linkedin Chief Economist re: why so many have left jobs and haven't returned...


  • Baby Boomers retiring, Gen Z's quitting.
  • Hospitality, Retail, Healthcare and Education.
  • Construction Workers are scarce.
  • More people are moving out of big cities due to affordable housing.
  • People have re-evaluated due to Covid.
 

I live out in the sticks. Yet within in 10 miles from me, there are 7 fast food restaurants, 2 Walmarts, 2 Lowes, I Home Depot, 5 pharmacies, and 12,055 dollar stores. oops that's 12,063, nope, 13,224. My point being there's a franchise store every 50 feet, and 3 on each corner. Have we just franchised way too many store/restaurants past our ability to staff them?
 
The economy must be in great shape if so many people have enough money or a strong enough support network to provide them with the basic necessities of life.

During my working years, I hung on to my job with both hands because I knew that my only option would be living under a bridge.

I'm not faulting it.

I'm happy that so many people feel that they have a choice.

If this situation lasts too long businesses will begin investing in automated solutions or start pushing more mundane tasks off on customers to avoid the need for entry-level employees.
 

Pepper said:
Yes, that's what self checkout is, allowing stores to do a task they should be hiring someone for. Understaffing, longer lines, etc.

Self checkout is an easy way to shoplift.
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Maybe it's cheaper to live with some shrinkage than it is to pay a cashier.

The problem will intensify as people's sense of entitlement grows and the belief that taking what you want is somehow justified.

"Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos." - Will Durant
 
Aunt Bea said:
Maybe it's cheaper to live with some shrinkage than it is to pay a cashier.

The problem will intensify as people's sense of entitlement grows and the belief that taking what you want is somehow justified.

"Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos." - Will Durant
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My CVS makes that easy. Way overpriced; not enough people on the floor; customers arguing with each other over the length of the lines and no help at checkout.
 
Aunt Bea said:
Maybe it's cheaper to live with some shrinkage than it is to pay a cashier.

The problem will intensify as people's sense of entitlement grows and the belief that taking what you want is somehow justified.

"Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos." - Will Durant
Click to expand...
That's what I was thinking. The money they lose from people shoplifting is far less than what it would cost to pay cashiers, so they just eat the losses. I'm not sure I'd describe what the shoplifters are doing could be from a sense of "entitlement," though, unless people should be entitled to an economy that works for everyone and not just those at the top.

The Declaration of Independence says we have a right to "a pursuit of happiness," and when you're poor and don't see a way out of poverty, there aren't many other options. People are fed up, which is evidenced by the recent looting of FedEx packages from the freight trains in LA. I think that's where it happened. I'm still waking up. :ROFLMAO:
 
Irwin said:
That's what I was thinking. The money they lose from people shoplifting is far less than what it would cost to pay cashiers, so they just eat the losses. I'm not sure I'd describe what the shoplifters are doing could be from a sense of "entitlement," though, unless people should be entitled to an economy that works for everyone and not just those at the top.

The Declaration of Independence says we have a right to "a pursuit of happiness," and when you're poor and don't see a way out of poverty, there aren't many other options. People are fed up, which is evidenced by the recent looting of FedEx packages from the freight trains in LA. I think that's where it happened. I'm still waking up. :ROFLMAO:
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There are many things that I can't afford, but I've never felt that I have the right to take what I want and expect someone else to pick up the tab.

Maybe it's time for me to embrace this new less expensive way of living.
 
I don't understand or trust all these "official" numbers of unemployment. According to the latest statistics, the unemployment numbers are near historical lows....Yet, virtually Every store or business has Help Wanted signs posted. Has everyone suddenly found a "high paying" job??? Now, even our schools are having to shut down normal classroom learning because of shortages of teachers.

Much of the shortages at the stores are being blamed on the lack of truck drivers, and dock workers....which for decades has provided a fairly decent living wage. Currently, truck drivers are averaging over $50K per year....are they making more money by Not Working???

Things just don't Add Up, to me. Either the numbers our government keeps posting are totally wrong, or the money people can make from the various government "social programs" is equal to, or more, than many jobs currently pay.

Something is Seriously Wrong with the way our economy is being managed....and I don't think Covid is to blame for all of this chaos.
 
It does seem like something is seriously out of whack. There's incongruity between what's being reported and the purported causes. If the labor shortages are being caused, in large part by babyboomers retiring,
Aunt Bea said:
There are many things that I can't afford, but I've never felt that I have the right to take what I want and expect someone else to pick up the tab.

Maybe it's time for me to embrace this new less expensive way of living.
Click to expand...
We grew up in an age where housing was relatively affordable as was higher education, and you could earn a decent living working in the manufacturing sector or at any union job. Those days are long gone. Opportunities have all but vanished for a lot of people. If you were born poor, in all likelihood, you're going to live a life of poverty, as will your children. That's just the way our economic system is structured now.

Poverty creates desperation, which is why we're seeing the looting of FedEx and UPS packages from trains and swarm shoplifting of ritzy, high end shops and department stores. The alternative is selling drugs or perhaps firearms. Jail probably isn't that big a deterrent when you live in squalor. For some, it might actually be an upgrade, which might partially explain why we have a greater percentage of incarcerated individuals than any other country in the world.

That said, for the impoverished with even a modicum of ambition, today's worker shortage should be a dream come true. I don't think there's ever been a better time to get your foot in the door in some industry — especially construction and the health care sector.
 
I agree that the numbers don't necessarily add up. But I think in the video it is mentioned that people choosing not to go back to their jobs may soon run out of savings. I don't believe it is due to payments from the government as most ran out some time ago. There are young women who no longer have the option of childcare due to Covid shutdowns and must choose between staying home and working. They have chosen to stay home to raise their children.

There also may be an additional reason for the lack of employees in some of the sectors. Immigration has declined significantly in the US since 2016, although you wouldn't know it if you watched some news channels, and there are no longer workers to fill certain jobs. Also, population growth in the US has declined. I used to cut lawns and wash cars when I was a teenager, but many of today's young people don't want to do anything that they feel is "beneath them", like work in the fast-food industry, trucking, construction, landscaping, etc. Maybe I have a slanted view because I live in TX, but I can't remember the last person who helped remodel our house or installed new landscaping that was Caucasian. Many immigrants do these jobs, and thank god for them.

"The Census Bureau had projected that the number of immigrants in the United States would increase by 1.4 million from July 2017 to July 2019. Instead, it climbed by a net 400,000."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/us/immigration-arkansas-population.html
 
Last edited:
For the record, there were 158,866,000 Americans employed in February, 2020.
There is currently 155,975,000 employed, a difference of -2,891,000
The civilian labor force has grown 2,508,000 during that period.
The 5.3M is the number of workers missing and no small part of that could be among boomers.
retire.jpg
We somehow equate boomers to post WW2, without understanding the various other things taking place besides Vets returning home from war. Those other things contributed significantly to births, which is coming retirement time for many. Note: this was studied after the great recession as the common theme was boomers retiring were the reason for the employment ratio falling. This was not true then, but is likely true (in part) now. This has been known and forecast for the last decade.

We managed to cover up many sins with just-in-time efficiency, resulting in less manhours, etc. Now we are back to Just-in-case inventory and don't have the manpower. That is really what the squawking is about, imo. Once things return to normal and just in time... those folks will no longer be needed.

I am done for now.
 
Don M. said:
I don't understand or trust all these "official" numbers of unemployment. According to the latest statistics, the unemployment numbers are near historical lows....Yet, virtually Every store or business has Help Wanted signs posted. Has everyone suddenly found a "high paying" job??? Now, even our schools are having to shut down normal classroom learning because of shortages of teachers.

Much of the shortages at the stores are being blamed on the lack of truck drivers, and dock workers....which for decades has provided a fairly decent living wage. Currently, truck drivers are averaging over $50K per year....are they making more money by Not Working???

Things just don't Add Up, to me. Either the numbers our government keeps posting are totally wrong, or the money people can make from the various government "social programs" is equal to, or more, than many jobs currently pay.

Something is Seriously Wrong with the way our economy is being managed....and I don't think Covid is to blame for all of this chaos.
Click to expand...
they only count those collecting a unemployment check ....
 
Irwin said:
It does seem like something is seriously out of whack. There's incongruity between what's being reported and the purported causes. If the labor shortages are being caused, in large part by babyboomers retiring,

We grew up in an age where housing was relatively affordable as was higher education, and you could earn a decent living working in the manufacturing sector or at any union job. Those days are long gone. Opportunities have all but vanished for a lot of people. If you were born poor, in all likelihood, you're going to live a life of poverty, as will your children. That's just the way our economic system is structured now.

Poverty creates desperation, which is why we're seeing the looting of FedEx and UPS packages from trains and swarm shoplifting of ritzy, high end shops and department stores. The alternative is selling drugs or perhaps firearms. Jail probably isn't that big a deterrent when you live in squalor. For some, it might actually be an upgrade, which might partially explain why we have a greater percentage of incarcerated individuals than any other country in the world.

That said, for the impoverished with even a modicum of ambition, today's worker shortage should be a dream come true. I don't think there's ever been a better time to get your foot in the door in some industry — especially construction and the health care sector.
Click to expand...
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859
 
I know of at least several mature adults whose occupation choices were affected by the PD. One had a highly successful 15 yr career in the travel & cruise industry which was just wiped out. He is reinventing himself in real estate and solar. Another was a public school principal who bailed out and went to work for a private Ed related firm for much more money. Another who had a job that he could work anywhere there was internet and phone, sold his home in the snow belt for a great price and moved to a condo in Fl. And yet another who is a civilian contractor for US military in a European country, decided to sign up for another two years because their life was so much better and more orderly there.
 
Irwin said:
It does seem like something is seriously out of whack. There's incongruity between what's being reported and the purported causes. If the labor shortages are being caused, in large part by babyboomers retiring,

We grew up in an age where housing was relatively affordable as was higher education, and you could earn a decent living working in the manufacturing sector or at any union job. Those days are long gone. Opportunities have all but vanished for a lot of people. If you were born poor, in all likelihood, you're going to live a life of poverty, as will your children. That's just the way our economic system is structured now.

Poverty creates desperation, which is why we're seeing the looting of FedEx and UPS packages from trains and swarm shoplifting of ritzy, high end shops and department stores. The alternative is selling drugs or perhaps firearms. Jail probably isn't that big a deterrent when you live in squalor. For some, it might actually be an upgrade, which might partially explain why we have a greater percentage of incarcerated individuals than any other country in the world.

That said, for the impoverished with even a modicum of ambition, today's worker shortage should be a dream come true. I don't think there's ever been a better time to get your foot in the door in some industry — especially construction and the health care sector.
Click to expand...

Poverty has absolutely nothing to do with train burglaries or mob shoplifting. It's a question of evaluating gains (high) against risks (low). Why work when you can smash and grab and not worry about a prison sentence? Even you said there's never been a better time to start working. Some people like being criminals.
 
JimBob1952 said:
Poverty has absolutely nothing to do with train burglaries or mob shoplifting. It's a question of evaluating gains (high) against risks (low). Why work when you can smash and grab and not worry about a prison sentence? Even you said there's never been a better time to start working. Some people like being criminals.
Click to expand...
Being a criminal ... you make your own schedule ... you take whatever time off you want ..... no boss to answer to ..no taxes

Down side: no benefits like life insurance or disability .....when you eventually got shot or something by a fed up victim.
 
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