Posted on 10/15/2021 1:33:42 PM PDT by blam
Brief:
• Retail workers in August walked out on their jobs at one of the highest rates in the nation, with a total 721,000 quitting that month, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• Their quit rate — which the Labor Department in its release said “can serve as a measure of workers’ willingness or ability to leave jobs” — was 4.7% in August, a high since April. In the wider labor market, the overall quitting rate rose to a series high 2.9%, while the rate of layoffs and discharges was little changed at 0.9%, per the report.
• Job openings in retail are piling up just as the holidays approach, with 1.2 million retail jobs open in August this year, compared to 734,000 a year ago. But retailers are falling behind, hiring 911,000 in August this year, compared to 922,000 last year.
Retail workers’ willingness to quit helps explain why hiring has been short of expectations in the last two months.
Employers didn’t fill as many jobs as expected during August or September, despite the end of many unemployment benefits and the beginning of school, as 721K workers picked up and left in the month of August.
“The end of emergency unemployment insurance and kids returning to campus this September was not the silver bullet for the jobs recovery many hoped for,” Wells Fargo’s Sarah House and Michael Pugliese said.
The situation is leading retailers to sweeten their job offers as they prep for the holidays, and many plan to hire workers to stay on beyond the season, according to a report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Employers are increasingly working to address burnout, raise wages, offer perks like child care and family support, and provide avenues for career advancement, according to Andrew Challenger, the firm’s senior vice president.
“While job cuts are at record lows, hiring announcements exploded in September, a month when many big box retailers, shipping, and warehousing companies announce seasonal hiring plans,” Challenger said in a statement. “This year, many hiring announcements are for permanent workers rather than seasonal ones.”
“Things are going to be real ugly this holiday season.”
A lot of folks are half out the door.
I go out of my way not to shop at a store. Not just because of stupid "Covid" but because of the hassle overall. Fighting the traffic to get there, jostling for a parking space, dealing with mostly indifferent retail employees, standing in line at the register where it takes 97 keystrokes to input a single transaction...of course the "mask" drama makes it even more unpalatable. I never wear a mask unless it is absolutely required like a hospital or subway train. But seeing 95% of the other all masked up like sheep, even when it isn't required, depresses the hell out of me.
So I just get it online and have it shipped to me. I now get all my meats delivered, my wines, my clothing, etc.
Your list is very similar to ours with some minor changes re time.
We haven’t been to a mall for well over a decade. Friends being held up in a mall parking lot in the day time stopped our mall shopping.
Even before the crud hit. We basically went to Home Depot, Costco, a local grocery store and Walmart. My wife went to Home Depot for plants, paint and stuff like that. I bought more and more from Amazon.
After the crud hit, we did Walmart pickup orders until that fell threw.
2 hour home delivery at Costco and pickup outside Home Depot after placing the order.
We gave up on Walmart due to outages/not in stock and not knowing about it until we picked up our orders.
Good local restaurants offer good takeout items at a reasonable price.
I grocery shop about 2x per week at a smaller version of a big chain with a great produce and butcher shop. If they are out of product A, I can often buy product B to replace it. This is done before I get into the checkout line.
I can compare product prices from most stores via an auto link to Amazon. Why pay more for product if I have to drive to the store to get it versus at a lower price to my front or back door?
Our local Walmart does not have anyone at the registers on Saturday and Sunday. Only employees, I think managers, helping on the Self Checkout machines.
That’s just mostly college kids going back to college . Happens every year just before the Holidays.
...thanks to the MADNESS!!
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