Why Are All My Employees Leaving? Experts Debate Labor Force Exodus

Employers across the country are asking why are all my employees leaving as the labor force keeps shrinking even while job postings hold steady. Nearly 1 million workers have exited the labor force over the past year, and the reasons range from retirement to burnout to caregiving strain, not a single cause employers can fix with one policy change.

The Numbers Behind the Exodus

The Labor Department estimated that 720,000 people left the workforce in June alone. The labor force participation rate, meaning the share of people 16 and older working or actively looking for work, dropped to 61.5% that month, the lowest reading since March 2021. Strip out the pandemic era lows, and it is the weakest participation rate in five decades.

Economists disagree on the primary driver. Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Comerica Bank, points out that economic growth depends on two forces: productivity per worker and the number of workers actually on the job. Productivity is holding up fine, he said, but the labor supply side has stalled.