Employees quitting jobs for better work

Data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has raised questions on the accuracy of government reports that state any given number of jobs being added to the economy.

According to the BLS, approximately 2 million workers quit their jobs at the beginning of summer, and marked the highest monthly number of that kind since November 2008.

Some employment specialists suggested it was a sign of workers becoming disenchanted with their current positions and wanting something new.

Others contend job shifting, over new jobs being added, is a matter of those who took what work they could get, after being bumped from chosen fields during mass corporate cuts, now finding positions that they have long waited for and are making their move.

“I think part of it is the comfort level people have that there are other jobs out there right now,” Robert Half Senior Staffing Manager Toby Toups said. “[And] a big part of it is that a lot of these companies have cut their departments back so lean that [workers] have had to take on all these extra responsibilities that they didn’t have before. They are working longer hours and a lot of them aren’t getting compensated for it and they just kind of become disenchanted with their companies after a long period of time when they are doing this extra work.”

At the end of the second quarter of 2011, the number of mass layoffs had declined in 16 of 18 private sector employment areas tracked by the BLS from the same time period one-year earlier.

In July, the marginally employed, those working part-time or temporary positions, ran consistent with the same month in 2010 at approximately 2.8 million and was slightly more than the reported individuals moving from one job to another.

“That is going to be hard to quantify,” Louisiana Department of Labor spokeswoman Lynn Dias Button said regarding why people reportedly shifted jobs and if it is an implication of chosen careers coming open and how it might be playing in Louisiana. After checking with the LDOD research unit, Button that the LDOD did not have that specific data.

Toups, who watches over the Tri-parish region as well as New Orleans markets, said it is difficult to pick details of specific industry movement in terms of careers from and to where people are going.

“I think [people shifting jobs] came with the comfort level of what else is going on out there,” Toups said. “Obviously, you don’t want to jump ship if there is nothing else out there. I think people were putting in the back of their heads, ‘When I have the opportunity to jump, I’m going to take it.'”

Toups said if there is a comfort level arriving in the job market where workers feel free to quit positions for better prospects, it behooves employers to consider what they need to do to keep skilled employees.

“There is quite a few different things [employers] can do,” Toups said.

“Offer promotions. Make sure your employees are well compensated. Simpler ways of recognition [include] saying, ‘Thank you for a job well done.’ Giving pats on the back where they are do go a long way.”