patricia sutka is the managing business editor at al jazeera digital in new york. she says, millions of americans are using this period to reassess their lives while americans are just simply residing there quickly in their jobs and record numbers. and that's really underscores the strength that we're seeing in the us labor market. there are a lot of factors that are contributing any of this and a lot of ideas are being floated out there. one really isn't that we're seeing the scarcity of workers is simply that some people are afraid to go back to work because over 19. but there's other factors that play as well. a lot of people believe the baby boomers took early retirement during the pandemic because their stock portfolios and the value of their houses have gone up so much because of the federal reserve, low interest rate policies. and also the united states is an incredibly entrepreneurial nation. and indeed, the other theory is that a lot of people have simply decided that they don't want to work for somebody else, that they want to simply open their own busine