TEXAS, USA — Maybe it is time to install revolving doors in our workplaces, because Texans aren’t ready to quit quitting yet. In fact, the Texas stampede is growing.
For many months during the pandemic, Texas had the highest number of people quitting their jobs. Last year, Texas and California traded the trophy back and forth for who was the quitting capitol of the U.S. in any given month.
But this year, according to seasonally adjusted figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in six of the eight months for which we have data, more workers in Texas headed to the exits than in any other state in the country.
Just from January through August, 3,154,000 people in the Lone Star State gave their notice and left their jobs. Using the most recent Census figures, that is almost equivalent to the populations of Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin combined.
Where are they all going?
Well in most of those cases, the quitters probably just jumped to other jobs here.
Texas also leads the country in the number of new hires in the eight months we have data for this year. Data shows 4,643,000 million people in Texas got jobs in that period. That’s close to the populations of Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth combined.
Are they leaving for more pay?
So, the workplace musical chairs continues.
But why?
For much of the pandemic, it seemed that pay disparities were driving a lot of the job switching. There was a big gap between the raise you could get by switching jobs versus staying at your current job.
But data from ADP and from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta show the pay gap between switchers and stayers is the narrowest it has been since the fall of 2020.
Hiring managers beware...
If people aren’t jumping for big pay raises, then what is inspiring them to switch?
We’ll leave that to employers to figure out. If you’re a hiring manager or you are in HR, some sage advice recently posted by Jay Denton, Chief Analytics Officer at Labor IQ, based in Dallas. He’s been with us on Right on the Money before.
Denton posted, in part, that, “The labor shortage is likely here to stay” and that “voluntary quits will remain elevated… because the only way to fill open roles is by poaching them from another company."
He closed with: “Businesses -- keep focusing on those retention efforts."