The Labor Department reported Tuesday that job openings and hiring rapidly declined in August, along with the largest number of workers quitting their jobs in more than two decades.

A total of 4.3 million workers left their jobs, an increase of 242,000 as about 4 million people left the workforce in July. The latest figures include 892,000 food-service workers, 721,000 retail workers and 534,000 healthcare and social assistance workers.

Surveys have shown that workers are confident they can find a new job amid a labor shortage.

Employment vacancies decreased to 10.44 million during August, according to the department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

Many economists have noted that U.S. labor issues are due to low wages and benefits.

“There’s simply no labor shortage when you’re talking about finding house cleaners for a hotel — there is a shortage of workers who want to work at what you’re offering,” Sylvia Allegretto, a UC Berkeley labor economist, told the Los Angeles Times in July.