People in the US are quitting jobs at record rates.

The Labor Department’s monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report showed that 4.3 million people left their jobs in August, an increase of 2.9 percent or a 242,000 job increase from the previous month – the highest figure in data that goes back to December 2000.

Most of the increase – 157,000 quits —was recorded in the accommodation and food services industry, while 26,000 more left the wholesale trade business, according to Epoch Times. State and local government education saw 25,000 more departures.

Employers laid off approximately 1.3 million workers in August.

Since the declines occurred prior to President Joe Biden’s mandates for businesses to coerce employees to get vaccinated or be continuously tested for COVID, speculation is that workers may have quit due to fears of the COVID Delta strain. However, it is possible that some left jobs due to mandates “in certain markets,” such as United Airlines that announced its vaccine mandate in early August.

In industries such as manufacturing, construction, transportation, and warehousing, quits barely increased. In professional and business services, which includes fields such as law, engineering, and architecture, where most employees can work from home, quitting was largely flat.

Quits rose the most in the South and Midwest.