Getty / Tim Boyle
- US workers are quitting their jobs less frequently than last year, but retail quits are trending up.
- The increase is surprising in part because major retailers are spending big money to keep workers.
- More quits are likely to further escalate a "labor hoarding" war among brands like Walmart, Home Depot, and Kroger.
Quitting — sometimes loudly, sometimes quietly — peaked as a trend a little over a year ago and has been slowly dialing down as talk of an economic downturn dialed up.
But over the past few months, the quit rate among retail workers has ticked gradually up, reaching 4.1% in January and topping the pre-pandemic highs for the industry for the first time since last April, according to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That's a notable increase when the overall rate is trending down toward 2019 levels of about 2.3%.
And even though the rate for hotel and restaurant workers is still higher, at 5.4% for January, there's not a clear direction for where hospitality quits are headed just yet — besides, quits in that sector have remained elevated for the past two years
What makes the rising quits in retail especially notable is the fact that the biggest employers like Walmart, Home Depot, Kroger, and more have been spending a lot of money to try to keep that from happening. Plus, they've promised to spend a lot more in the coming years.
Long known for having some of the lowest wages around, retail workers collectively have seen their pay increase more since 2019 than almost any other group.
It's not uncommon to find entry-level positions offering over $16, $18, or $20 per hour for sales floor jobs, and the annual earnings of median-paid retail workers are up in many cases to the tune of 25% to 50% over three years ago.
The upward creep of the quits rate suggests these pay increases might not be enough — Best Buy CEO Corrie Barry said last week that "competitive compensation continues to be table stakes," and that there are more ways employers can make these jobs attractive for workers.
With nearly two job openings per unemployed worker, rising quits in retail are likely to further escalate the ongoing labor hoarding war among major employers. It remains to be seen whether promised future pay increases will turn back the trend in the coming months, or if companies will have to sweeten the deal even further.