Quitting your job

I keep hearing about how many people have recently quit their job. Everyone is hiring and short of workers.

The worker has a lot of leverage in this labor market. I understand that. If you want a better job, you can get one. The national unemployment rate is 4.2% right now.

What I don’t quite understand is how someone can just quit their job…and then not get another one. Are they just living off their savings? I mean at some point they’re gonna have get another job, right? That’s the part I don’t get.

Maybe someone can enlighten me on this subject.

It’s called retirement and people do it at any age every day. I have been wanting to try that but the wife hasn’t warmed up to the idea yet.

I can’t find the article I read but it said that a large percentage of it is early retirement.

mahtofire14 wrote:

I can’t find the article I read but it said that a large percentage of it is early retirement.

Exactly.

The restaurants are really struggling and I don’t think it’s from retirement. Was just up at Giants Ridge over New Years and some lifts were closed and their tubing hill was totally closed due to staffing shortages

Those are all typically young persons jobs

The kids have been scared into thinking if you leave your house you die.

I am retiring early on January 28, age 63. Haven’t missed a day of work due to the pandemic, investments have done very well.

Several friends have done the same. Two brothers retired as union floor layers at 62. Decent pension, happy they are done and not beating up their bodies any longer.

Many leaving relatively low paying service jobs are firding higher paying jobs in other industries. Construction trades are begging for apprentices, I know several young people who have gone that route.

gimruis wrote:

I keep hearing about how many people have recently quit their job. Everyone is hiring and short of workers.
The worker has a lot of leverage in this labor market. I understand that. If you want a better job, you can get one. The national unemployment rate is 4.2% right now.

Retirement is one major explanation. We’ve been warned for years that the very large Baby Boomer generation is reaching retirement age. Even the youngest Baby Boomers are now almost 60. Well, guess what? More than half of that generation is PAST the age of 65 and most Baby Boomers don’t intend to wait until 65 to retire they are punching the eject button now.

And why shouldn’t they? The economy is red hot. The value of their house is at historic highs as is the value of their retirement savings accounts. They simply don’t need to work anymore.

The other thing that factors into the Great Resignation is that we get good data on who quits their jobs, but we don’t get good data on where those exact workers GO after they quit.

Many workers are quitting, that’s true. But they are turning up in other jobs by taking advantage of unprecedented demand. They aren’t really quitting, they are giving themselves a promotion.

In this great game of musical jobs, it’s the low-paid service and hospitality jobs that are simply going unfilled. The hard reality is that there are plenty of other options other than restaurant work or other low-paid service work, so, shockingly, nobody wants those jobs and the simple economics state that isn’t going to change until they pay more.

Mrs Grouse works in tech and she started a new gig today. Technically, she would have contributed to any report that showed a reduction in employees on payroll because she took a few weeks off between gigs, so she was one of the millions of people who quit.

But she started at another Silly Valley firm today and in her “new hire” virtual conference today, she was one of 147 other employees who were statting at this tech company THIS WEEK.

There’s going to be those trying to spin this as some kind of bad sign, but that’s just BS.

Interesting that it wasn’t too many years ago that some were talking about the need for a universal wage because there just wouldn’t be enough jobs for everyone. Automation was cited as a factor.

To each there own. More to life than grinding it out for 75percent of it.

Ripjiggen wrote:

To each there own. More to life than grinding it out for 75percent of it.

Yep, more power to ya if you can retire early.

fishtoeat recomended this book in the millionaire thread.
I’m not quite finished but you’ll understand to not work until you die.

“Die With Zero” should be read by anyone that wants to leave a legacy.

Basically it say’s if you die with money you wasted time/energy working.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Basically it say’s if you die with money you wasted time/energy working.

Believe it or not but some people do like to work

Basically it say’s if you die with money you wasted time/energy working.
[/quote]

Amen…

Coletrain27 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Eelpoutguy wrote:</div>
Basically it say’s if you die with money you wasted time/energy working.

Believe it or not but some people do like to work

Think you missed the point.

Coletrain27 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Eelpoutguy wrote:</div>
Basically it say’s if you die with money you wasted time/energy working.

Believe it or not but some people do like to work

He has a great explanation on that topic.

My hope is the last check I write before I die–bounces!

Think you missed the point.
[/quote]

I didn’t miss the point.. it was a joke settle down

I am pretty settled. Down that is.

MX1825 wrote:

My hope is the last check I write before I die–bounces!

Yup, the one to pay for my funeral

Ok so a large amount are simply retiring at or near a retirement age. Makes sense.

Still doesn’t quite explain the rest though. I mean if you are 35 or 40 you can’t just quit the work force…or can you?

I’m 38 and I would never just randomly leave my job because I can. I would certainly line up something better before I considered doing it.

Retiring early is easy if……..you don’t need to keep up with the Jones, don’t need to be within 5 minutes of Target or Cub Foods, don’t need to own season tickets to anything and if you can pay cash for a house and your vehicles are in good shape.

Downsizing and relocating makes retiring with little money much easier.

gimruis wrote:

Ok so a large amount are simply retiring at or near a retirement age. Makes sense.

Still doesn’t quite explain the rest though. I mean if you are 35 or 40 you can’t just quit the work force…or can you?

I’m 38 and I would never just randomly leave my job because I can. I would certainly line up something better before I considered doing it.

I am 41 and could quit tomorrow and not worry to much for quite some time.

gimruis wrote:

Ok so a large amount are simply retiring at or near a retirement age. Makes sense.

Still doesn’t quite explain the rest though. I mean if you are 35 or 40 you can’t just quit the work force…or can you?

I’m 38 and I would never just randomly leave my job because I can. I would certainly line up something better before I considered doing it.

I wouldn’t quit my job either but that’s because I’m risk averse. For those in their late 30’s to mid 40’s we’re kind of on the backside of a massive shift in how people look at work.

Many people now, especially 10 to 15 years younger look at work as more transient. Not uncommon for people to have 2-3 part time jobs or side hustles. The gig economy has allowed people freedom and flexibility that full time work hasn’t.

I manage a couple of fairly large sales teams…most of my folks do pretty well. But, I’ve had people leave just because they want to…nothing planned but want a change. Frankly, I wish I had the guts to do the same sometimes.

Between boomers retiring early and work as we know changing I expect the issues with hiring and retaining people to be a challenge unless the economy goes in the tank.

This my take on the labor shortage, take away the penalty for working at 62 and drawing SS, folks would still be paying into SS, and be in the workforce. Just an idea! DK.

Good point cat, they make everyone work for cash and hide it and collect SS rather than work and pay into SS

Won’t be long and all the fast food places will be drive-thru only. Less labor, more automated win, win for them. The issue will be the government. All these robots don’t pay taxes.

Somebody mentioned the lower paying jobs suffering to find hires… I believe the insecure border will be helping that void shortly.

big_g wrote:

Somebody mentioned the lower paying jobs suffering to find hires… I believe the insecure border will be helping that void shortly.

Why would illegals work when they don’t need to?

Coletrain27 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>big_g wrote:</div>
Somebody mentioned the lower paying jobs suffering to find hires… I believe the insecure border will be helping that void shortly.

Why would illegals work when they don’t need to?

Election coming