Finding good employees has always been a challenge, but these days it’s harder than ever. And it’s unlikely to improve anytime soon.

The so-called quit rate—the share of workers who voluntarily leave their jobs—hit a new record of 3 percent in September 2021, according to the latest data available from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The rate was highest in the leisure and hospitality sector, where 6.4 percent of workers quit their jobs in September. In all, 20.2 million workers left their employers from May through September.

Companies are feeling the effects. In August 2021, a survey found that 73 percent of 380 employers in North America were having difficulty attracting employees—three times the share that said so the previous year. And 70 percent expect this difficulty to persist into 2022.

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