The massive number of unfilled job openings may be encouraging the currently-employed to quit.
With 50,000 job openings in the New Orleans area, plenty of workers may be checking to see if the grass is greener somewhere else.
"People feel comfortable enough that the environment, the coast is clear, that they could find another job," said UNO business economics Professor Mark Rosa. "Some positions are being bid-up quite substantially because what is crunch time right now, that there's so many positions coming open so quickly that we can't respond to it."
While job openings may lead to a lot of job-to-job movement for some employees, Rosa said a stock market that has more than rebounded from the early pandemic crash has older workers thinking more seriously about retirement.
"They look down at their statements and say, "well that's kept pace and that's done well and I may be at the highest point I've ever seen in my 401(k).'"
Rosa said it may have retirement-age workers wondering why they keep coming to work.