US workers are quitting jobs at historic rates, and many unemployed are not coming back despite record job openings - Jason Furman

June 28, 2021, Opinion: "The US labor market has added an average of 541,000 jobs per month over the last three months, a pace that would be rapid in normal times but is slower than expected given the 10 million jobs shortfall from the pre-pandemic trend and the record number of job openings. The main reason for the lack of much faster job growth has been the unusually low number of people transitioning from unemployment to employment—a flow that should be at or near record levels given the overall labor market. Workers are also quitting jobs at record rates—but, as explained below, this is almost exactly what one would have predicted given the large number of job openings."

HKS Authors - Jason Furman and Willie Powell