The United States saw the largest number of people that told their boss to pound sand as 4.34 million quit their jobs in September. The record 3.0% quits rate speaks volume about the labor market and the economy.

This is a sign of economic strength although a chunk of that could be vaccine mandate motivated.

Some are also quitting because they are in a bind of trying to keep up with inflation which is more and more falling behind.

How intriguing that we learn of 11.0 million job openings and record quits on the same day consumer sentiment crashes to a ten-year low as one-in-four point to lower standard of living?

This is really a headscratcher, but I think it’s a warning that throwing money at the situation is making matters worse. Much worse.

I find it interesting we never completely recovered the labor force participation lost during the Great Recession, and without an economic backdrop that allows and encourages corporate investing rather than higher taxes and subsidies designed for the government to pick wines and determine losers we may never see participation rebound.

The thing is until folks return to the labor force, the Fed will try to be as accommodative as possible and that is why the market is higher when everything else says it should be lower.