The U.S. manufacturing workforce is experiencing substantial turnover — but, despite recent political rhetoric, it's not entirely due to a loss of manufacturing jobs.
Instead, new data suggests that more manufacturing workers simply believe that their prospects could be better in a different job.
The Wall Street Journal reports that more workers quit their manufacturing jobs in October than in any month in eight years, while the gap between voluntary departures and layoffs in the U.S. manufacturing sector was at its highest in nine years.
The U.S. Labor Department's monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey found that 157,000 workers quit a manufacturing job in October, while 94,000 were laid off. About 21,000 departed for other reasons, namely transfers, retirement, disability or death.
The numbers coincided with a tight U.S. labor market overall, but the paper noted that the trend of resignations outpacing layoffs dates back about five years.
Job losses also narrowly exceeded new manufacturing hires for the 12 months ending in October, while the number of open manufacturing jobs continued to exceed the number of new hires.
The latter pattern, the Journal said, could mean that manufacturers aren't necessarily trying to fill those positions — or that they can't find enough workers with appropriate skills.
