The number of workers quitting last month fell in health care and social assistance jobs, as well as restaurants, hotels and construction. Quits went up in nondurable good manufacturing.
Even though a record number of people quit their jobs last year, the US labor market still recorded a net employment gain of 6.4 million.
In total, 75.3 million workers were hired last year, while 68.9 million quit, were laid off or discharged. Out of these so-called separations, 47.4 million were voluntary quits.
In line with that, the number of layoffs hit a new record low at 1.2 million in December, showing that the negative impact from the Omicron variant didn’t fully hit the labor market at the end of last year.
Job openings stood at 10.9 million in December, compared with the data series high of 11.1 million recorded in July.
Worker shortage continues
For US companies, the labor shortage is still…
