Quitting Workers Perceive Better Jobs Market Than Exists

Americans increasingly leave jobs, but labor demand is down

U.S. labor markets are a mess. Yet a growing number of workers think their job prospects are pretty good.

That's one way to read the details of Wednesday's job openings and labor turnover survey, or Jolts, report.

According to the report, the weakness in the payrolls number — which is the net change between job gains and losses — isn't because businesses became uninterested in hiring. The number of new hires each month has hovered around 4.3 million since February. Rather, job separations — layoffs, quits, and other discharges — have been on the rise for much of this year.