TED: The Economics Daily

Fifty years ago, on Labor Day 1974, the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) was signed into law. While federal, state, and local laws do not require establishments to provide retirement benefits, ERISA established standards in case they do. In March 2023, 70 percent of workers in private industry had access to a retirement plan and 53 percent were participating in a plan.

In June 2024, quits rates (the number of quits during the entire month as a percentage of total employment) were above 3.0 percent in 3 states: Montana (3.2 percent) and South Carolina and Wyoming (3.1 percent each). There were 73,000 quits in South Carolina, 17,000 quits in Montana, and 9,000 quits in Wyoming. Nationally, there were 3,282,000 quits in June, and the U.S. quits rate was 2.1 percent.

There were 525 workplace fatalities from unintentional overdoses due to nonmedical use of drugs or alcohol in 2022. This is a 13.1-percent increase from 2021 when there were 464 fatalities and is the tenth consecutive annual increase. Unintentional overdoses include overdoses from stimulants such as methamphetamine and from opioids such as fentanyl.

South Dakota had the lowest unemployment rate in July 2024, 2.0 percent, closely followed by Vermont, 2.1 percent, and North Dakota, 2.2 percent. The jobless rate in Mississippi, 2.7 percent, set a new series low.