4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in April

In April, U.S. employers experienced another month of millions of workers walking out the door.

More than 4.42 million Americans quit their job that month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The government also revised the number of resignations in March, from the initially reported 4.54 million to 4.44 million. Also, nearly 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in February.

Most of those resignations in April were recorded in the private sector (4.18 million).

Among industries, trade, transportation, and utilities (979,000) recorded the biggest loss, followed by professional and business services (809,000) and accommodation and food services (797,000).

More than 50 million Americans quit their job over the past year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Although the Great Resignation has been a massive hurdle for employers to overcome, Marc Detampel argues it’s also a great opportunity to reset your employee value proposition. Detampel is the managing director of Felix Global, a Chicago-based firm that offers full-service recruitment, leadership development, career transition and executive search expertise to top employers worldwide.

“Make sure that your employee value proposition, which includes your company culture and how you support work/life balance, is well articulated,” Detampel told HRD. “How people are expected to be working and how they're going to stay connected with their colleagues and leaders has never been more important.”

Nearly 90% of employees prefer a role with remote options, according to San Francisco-based PRO Unlimited, an integrated workforce management platform provider. In other words, employers that offer such flexibility will capture 96% of the labor market while those that don’t will lose out on 58% of candidates.

Also, a boost in pay is the best way to address staff turnover, say 42 per cent of employees in an EY study.

Job openings

Meanwhile, U.S. employers recorded 11.4 million job openings in April.

Several industries are in need of at least a million workers, including professional and business services (2.18 million); health care and social assistance (1.80 million); trade, transportation, and utilities (1.96 million); and accommodation and food services (1.34 million).

Both the number of quits and job openings in the U.S. in April are “near all-time record highs,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.

“There are 1.9 job openings per unemployed worker in the U.S., down from just barely shy of 2.0 in March,” added Daniel Zhao, senior economist and lead data scientist on Glassdoor's economic research team. “Still a hot job market but in the face of declining sentiment & a very low unemployment rate already, it seems hard to believe that this number will climb much more.”

Meanwhile, layoffs were down to 1.2 million, a new record low, said Pollak.