Record number of workers quit jobs in November

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Opal Hotels Group, an ownership, management and development company based in Raleigh, has hotels including the Country Inn & Suites in the Triangle and five others across the Eastern Seaboard.

Chief Operating Officer Mital Patel said they're down about 20 percent of workers across their hotels.

"We're in the business of greeting guests and cleaning hotel rooms, neither of which can be done remotely," Patel said. "So we did experience quite a bit of folks leaving the hotels, looking for other places where they could work. And that's continued to happen, you know, for the better part of two years."

This is not unique to Opal Hotels Group.

Labor Department data shows a record 4.5 million American workers quit their jobs in November.

Experts say the restaurant and hotel industries have been hard hit. But Patel does see things getting better.

"In November, actually, things were starting to get better until I think Omicron and the holidays kind of came into the picture," Patel said. "And then now, we're slowly seeing an improvement in the labor."

Phil Mastroianni, co-owner of Ruckus Restaurant Group in the Triangle, said they're seeing an improvement in hiring in November and December.

"We're almost back to where we were pre-pandemic," Mastroianni said. "One of the interesting things that's happened is that our management retention during the last 18 months has been 100%. So we've been fortunate in that we've been able to retain all of our salary employees during the pandemic, which is, I think, an important milestone for us to be able to do that."

Experts say all the workers quitting is actually a sign of confidence in the economy and a bounce back in the job market after the pandemic recession.