”Survey says” looks at various rankings and scorecards judging geographic locations, noting that these grades are best seen as a mix of art and data.
Buzz: For all the cliches about flighty Californians, they certainly seem to enjoy stability — especially on the job. While California had the most job quitters since December 2000, its status as the nation’s largest employment market means those voluntary work departures represent a proportionally modest slice of the state’s overall workforce.
Source: The Bureau of Labor Statistics will issue on Friday, Oct. 22 its first state version of the widely watched monthly “JOLTS” job movement report that tracks, among other workplace trends, the pace of quitting. As a sample of what we’ll be learning, the bureau released some historic quits data that I crunched using my trusty spreadsheet.
Details
California averaged 267,012 quits monthly over the past two decades or 1-in-10 of all U.S. workers who left a job of their own volition. (FYI: Retirements don’t count as quits!)
Those voluntary exits translate to a quit rate of 3.19% of all California workers — 12th lowest nationally — and lower than the average 3.25% recorded in the remaining 49 states and Washington, D.C.
Quitting was most popular in states with harsh winters and plenty of jobs in the volatile energy industry: Alaska’s quit rate was 4.57%, No. 1 in the U.S. followed by Montana at 3.99%, Wyoming at 3.85%, Idaho at 3.67% and West Virginia at 3.66%.
The fewest quits were in places with more office jobs: D.C. and New York at 2.82%, Connecticut at 2.92%, Indiana at 2.97% and Illinois at 2.98%.
Quits can be viewed as a measure of worker confidence in the job market. People typically don’t leave a job without a darn good shot at getting another one.
But the pace of quitting also can move up and down with economic cycles, and California is known for its rollercoaster-like business climate.
Let’s go back to the 2000-2007 boom, with plentiful job opportunities. California’s hot economy averaged 283,906 quits a month or a quit rate of 2.98%. That was a middle-of-the pack No. 30 ranking and a sliver above the 2.95% rate seen in the rest of the union.
Then came the awful 2008-2012 period in the years surrounding the Great Recession, which hammered the state economy and made having a steady job a coveted luxury.
California quits dropped 32% to an average 194,400 monthly. Quits in other states fell 23%. California quit rate? Down to 2.5% — No. 38 nationally — and still just above 2.46% in the rest of the states.
In the 2012-2019 recovery, quitting was back in vogue. California averaged 294,567 a month, 52% above the recessionary era. Quits in other states rose 40%. California’s quit rate jumped to 3.6% — but that was eighth-lowest nationally and below 3.86% in other states.
Now we’re in the pandemic era and all of its economic upheaval. Oddly, that turmoil has prompted workers to tell their boss “I’m outta here.”
California averaged 286,154 quits from February 2020 through March 2021, a decline of 3% compared to the pace of the 2012-2019 rebound. Meanwhile, quits in other states rose 5%.
But remember, coronavirus-linked business limitations slashed the number of workers. So California’s quit rate — the share of workers voluntarily departing — soared to 4.7% of all jobs. That’s nearly double what we saw in the Great Recession; it’s the sixth-highest nationally; and it’s above 4.55% in other states.
Caveat
Industries have their own quit rates — typically the higher the paycheck, the lower the quit rate. California has plenty of good-paying and low-paying industries.
Let’s ponder extremes in the average quit rates by industry from April to August 2021 …
Lots of quitting: Leisure and hospitality at 5.5%, retail at 4.3%, transportation at 3.4% and professional services at 3.3%.
Rare quits: Government at 0.7%, financial activities and private education at 1.4%, and information at 1.7%.
Bottom Line
As we much discussed before, Californians like stability. They don’t switch homes much. And this new set of job stats shows they haven’t quit their jobs very frequently, at least on a national scale.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
