While economists have called the recent trend of employees leaving their jobs “The Great Resignation,” questions have come into play about renaming the movement a migration.

While there is little question job openings, which have reached record levels, are unfilled there is evidence it is because workers are leaving former positions for more lucrative ones.

This can also be evidenced behind the number of unemployment claims being at the lowest point since 1969.

“This Great Resignation story is really more about lower-wage workers finding new opportunities in a reopening labor market and seizing them,” Nick Bunker, director of economic research at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told the New York Times.

“Much of the discussion about the increase in quitting has focused on white-collar workers re-evaluating their priorities in the pandemic,’’ reported The Times. “But job turnover has been concentrated in hospitality and other low-wage sectors, where intense competition for employees has given workers the leverage to seek better pay.’’

There is no doubt a hole in the lower-wage workforce. “Workers Wanted” signs dot landscapes, including the Tennessee Valley.

Lucia Cape, senior vice president of economic development and workforce at the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce, said trepidation surrounding the coronavirus COVID-19 and its variants is as much problematic in finding employees, along with the search for better opportunities.

“I think we’re still in a lot of limbo with people feeling comfortable in some service jobs, feeling like environments are safe with the Delta variant and now the Omicron surge,’’ she said.

This is the atmosphere as some 40 new restaurants have either recently opened or are preparing to in the city.

“A lot of the jobs that are having trouble finding people are struggling because either people don’t feel comfortable going back to work yet, or it’s that companies are not paying competitive wages,’’ Cape said. “They’re having difficulty because of the number of people that are or are not available because of concerns about safety. Those factors are all working together to create a lot of uncertainty.’’

While food service jobs are plentiful, Cape said there are other options.

“We do see people looking for work,’’ she said. “It may not be the same work they did two years ago. So we’re working to make sure that the awareness of opportunities is out there and that people understand what training is available to them if they do want to change what they’re doing. They want to move from one type of job to another either because of their safety concerns, or because of wage issues.’’

The Chamber of Commerce offers job search tools on its website www.hsvchamber.org. On the site, click the link “jobs’’ to access the workforce aimed “asmartplace.”