Recent Improvements

“If jobs are out there and especially at a higher wage, that trumps any bad feeling consumers may have about the economy,” said Robert Dye, chief economist at Comerica Inc. in Dallas. While hourly wages “still have some room to go” to return to pre-recession levels, recent improvements may encourage frustrated workers to “go out and get a better job.”

While the U.S. government hasn’t changed the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour, since 2009, average hourly earnings for all U.S. private-sector employees rose 2.1 percent in January to a seasonally-adjusted $23.78 an hour from a year ago, according to the Labor Department.

The housing market’s recovery also could stimulate some movement among U.S. employees, Dye said. “As houses become more sellable, that allows workers to relocate to new jobs.”

More Cautious

Even so, Americans are more cautious, given their experiences during the recession that ended in June 2009, so they’re “much more reluctant to quit a job unless they have another one lined up,” Faucher said. In addition, hiring gains still are somewhat modest, driven primarily by a decrease in layoffs rather than “a cyclical pick-up” that would indicate a stronger labor market, he said.

Employees also are more discerning about differentiating between “any type of job and a full-time position, ideally with benefits,” said Colas, who analyzes trends related to Google Inc.’s search results. There’s been a clear change in psychology as consumers seek more stability, based on Internet search data for prospective employees, he said.

The “quality, type and pay of jobs” is very important to workers now, whereas they may have been willing to take part- time employment during the height of the recession to make ends meet, Colas said. As a result, search volume for full-time work has increased about 400 percent compared with 2006, while queries for temp positions are near a five-year low, he said.

During the last economic expansion, the number of people who resigned began to rise in mid-2003 before peaking at about 3.1 million in November 2006, Labor Department figures show. Quits fell to 1.6 million in September 2009 and have shown “slow improvement” since, said Dye, adding that the total will “elevate as the economy continues to improve.”

These data are “absolutely valuable” for gauging dynamics within the U.S. workforce, according to Faucher, who said more voluntary resignations will be a good sign.