A sign of an improving economy is when people begin to find new jobs. And it's an even better economy when more people are getting more confident about quitting their current posts. In the last three months more people resigned their jobs than were actually laid off. Some of the quitters are leaving because they have found new jobs. Others don't really have solid offers yet but are looking forward to finding better opportunities.
The improvement in the economy is a bit slow and a bit inconsistent. In May, private companies added 41,000 new jobs after they added almost 218,000 back in April. And the number of people who quit their jobs is way below where it was before the recession. But overall, the trend points to an upswing in the job market. So far this year, around 982,000 jobs have been added by employers.
At the height of the recession workers were generally reluctant to quit. Even those who found new jobs were often afraid that moving would make them vulnerable to a layoff. In many businesses, the rule of thumb is that the last one in is the first one out.
This isn't very true these days. More employed people are going for job interviews now rather than those who were laid off.
Studies show that worker morale is at a low during a recession. But as companies try to get more work from their employees, the number of resignations will keep rising. As the economy improves, more companies will have their top employees go hunting for better jobs. Right now, about a quarter of employees are planning to leave their current posts within the next twelve months. This compares with only 10 percent who were planning to leave their jobs in 2006.
Many workers gave up awards and bonuses, and kept their mouths shut when their bosses heaped on more work on them during the recession. With the slowly recovering economy, employees are beginning to realize their worth once more and will be heading to the exit.
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