This is the second part of the FT series analyzing how the Covid-19 pandemic affects Changed the labor market And changed the way millions of people think about work

Lindsay Coleman quit two jobs this year.

The first time was in January, when she worked in a software company for nearly six years after graduating from university, doing sales. She loves her colleagues there, but feels she can’t refuse a competitor’s offer for a position she thinks might be more enjoyable.

But in October, Coleman, a New Yorker, realized that she would prefer to sell apartments rather than software. After obtaining a real estate license, she resigned to join The Corcoran Group.

29-year-old Coleman said: “Software sales is a very profitable career, but I always know in my heart that this is not something I like, and I don’t know if I will do something about it.”

She added: “When you sit and work alone in an apartment every day, all day, you will truly realize whether you are happy or not.”

Coleman is part of the unprecedented wave of American workers’ resignations in 2021.About 4.4 million Americans resign In September alone, the Department of Labor broke the record for the largest number of resignations in a single month since the survey began in 2001. The previous record was set in August.

Across the United States, as businesses expand to take advantage of the economy rebounding from the coronavirus pandemic, there is a great demand for workers. Although some people are trying to use their newly discovered influence to get better pay and benefits from existing employers through organized actions, more people are giving up their old jobs and turning to better ones.

Job vacancies have also soared.Economists believe that most quitters may have Other characters line up Before submitting the notice, because the labor force participation rate has remained stable since the decline in 2020, despite the record high resignation rate.

Nick Bunker, an economist at the employment website Indeed, said: “In 2021, as the demand for workers also increases, we do see an increase in the resignation rate of workers.” “So this is indeed what many workers see. The story of going out and seizing opportunities in the labor market.”

The “great resignation” has been called the “great resignation” and initially surprised many economists who believed that even if they were not satisfied with their jobs, workers were generally unwilling to disturb the status quo.

But the Covid-19 crisis has confused economic and social norms, causing workers to reassess what they want from work. As a result, many people who were hesitant to quit smoking finally decided to grit their teeth.

“This is’Covid clarity’,” said Alexander Alonso, chief knowledge officer of the Human Resource Management Association, who has been studying the phenomenon for six months.

Alonso said that most ex-smokers during the pandemic leave in search of higher salaries, better work-life balance or better workplace benefits. “This is not a comeback [office] People are fighting,” he added.

Bunker said the industries most affected by the pandemic also had the most resignations, referring to manufacturing, leisure and hospitality industries.

For Danit Sibovits, a lawyer based in New York, she quit her job at an insurance defense company in June due to lack of workplace benefits.

During the lockdown last year, her old company did not provide employees with basic work-from-home equipment, such as laptops or health resources.

“I’m stagnating,” said Sibovits, 38. “I was fine before Covid. I can handle it. Then I can’t.”

In Houston, another lawyer had the same knowledge. 36-year-old Aparna Shewakramani has been in business for 10 years and most recently served as the general counsel of an insurance brokerage company.She never really liked her job. The epidemic gave her the opportunity to star in a Netflix series without a script called India Matchmaking.

Shewakramani took time off to find other opportunities, including writing a book after the show became famous overnight, but never returned. She resigned in April.

“I had to lose fat. For me, that was my stable career,” Shewakramani said.

Jenna Coluccio, a 27-year-old medical assistant, quit her job in June due to the need for financial stability. She knew that the intensive care unit in Manhattan, where she worked for more than two years, paid her too low a salary and was not suitable for her long-term culture.

Although she originally planned to continue working for three years, the pressure of the Covid crisis prompted her to start looking for new positions in her favorite hospital earlier. A few weeks later, she received a letter of admission and immediately submitted it.

“People have been talking about how this generation keeps changing jobs,” Coruccio said. “This is because no one allows yourself to be bullied or undervalued. Did you know? This is completely correct. Our parents told us that you should stick to it and keep working, but why?”