Laid Off? No, I Quit!

Feb. 1, 2011 -- Employees are starting to say two words bosses haven't heard in years: "I quit!"

Numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that in November, the last month for which data are available, more workers voluntarily left their jobs than were laid off. Some 1.849 million people quit, compared to 1.657 million who were laid off.

What's more, this was the fourth consecutive month to see quitters come out on top.

The number quitting, says Bureau of Labor economist John Wohlford, is an indication of worker confidence: You don't leave a job, even a crummy one, unless you think you can find another. And you don't leave a good job unless you think you can find a better.

"It's an important number," says John Challenger, president of executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

"When unemployment is high, employers are in the driver's seat. Now job insecurity is dissipating; people are starting to vote with their feet," he said. "This may signal there's some shift beginning to occur."

For him, four straight months is confirmation.

Robert Arnold, 37, had the courage to quit his job in June 2010. The mid-level banking executive was hesitant, he admitted, to leave an OK job with "a solid employer" -- a Fortune 500 bank in Charlotte. He didn't want to quit just to escape; he wanted something better.

"A better job -- that's key," Arnold said.

He didn't want to settle for something lower-level. After a four-month search he found a better job in an equally solid bank and made the leap.

It's worked out well, he said, if only because he now feels "less stress."

Charlotte's job market he described as improving. Back when he was looking, he said, he saw many candidates overqualified for job openings. Now, he said, he sees what he calls "stretch" candidates -- people who meet, say, only half the requirements for a given job.

John Challenger says the uptick in people quitting is good news for star performers, whom management will have to work harder to retain.