Why are Americans choosing to quit their jobs in record numbers?

The United States is seeing its highest “quit rate” since the government started keeping track two decades ago. Bill Whitaker speaks with employers who are scrambling to find help and people who left their jobs and aren’t looking back.

YouTube comments:

“I’ve worked in the food industry since I was 16, I am 30 now. I’ve never been offered a management position or any other kind of supervisory role so I opened my own restaurant in 2020. I got tired of being overlooked so I took my fellow co-workers and gave them a job at my restaurant with great pay, great benefits and I really did for them what my former jobs refused to do which is giving them “respect”. So far I’ve had not one employee leave my business.”

“Bad environment, low pay, employers are demanding more and paying less. I quit my job because I was expected to do the job of 3 people and constantly reprimanded for not being able to keep up. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has gone through this. A lot of businesses, corporations treat their employees like dirt, unimportant. They are way too many managers out there that have absolutely no people skills and are high on a power trip.”

“I’ve worked since I was 13. I walked the day I turned 55. It was always the plan. Nobody ever gave me a dime. I kept telling everyone at work I was going to leave. No one believed me. I left everything at my desk. Got up and left. I’m now 62. Just started S.S. All those years I worked my way up the ladder. When I got there I realized there was just more work. Get out early if you can.”

“Also let’s take some social responsbility for ourselves- it’s not JUST the companies that make jobs miserable. I talk to people in the service and retail industries and I personally spent years in IT. On the customer end, people are often entitled, impatient, and rude. It’s far worse that what I remember it 20 years ago. Don’t make your own workplace or that of someone else, needlessly toxic. Your Amazon package being a day late or waiting in line a little longer at the supermarket are not the end of the world. You will survive, I promise.”