There is disagreement as to whether or not the Great Resignation will have a lasting effect. Although quit rates remained high in late 2021 and early 2022, many workers in Western countries returned to the labor force in large numbers.
In the United States According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a total of 47 million Americans quit their jobs in 2021. Resignations are consistently the most prevalent in the
South, where 2.9% of the workforce voluntarily left their jobs in June, followed by the
Midwest (2.8%) and the
West (2.6%). The
Northeast is the most stable region, with 2.0% of workers quitting in June. The COVID-19 stimulus checks likely provided the financial security needed for many workers to voluntary resign their positions. According to the
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, many Baby Boomers chose to retire early during the pandemic, resulting in 2.4 million more retirements than predicted between February 2020 and August 2021. According to a
PricewaterhouseCoopers survey conducted in early August 2021, 65% of employees said they were looking for a new job and 88% of executives said their company was experiencing higher
turnover than normal. A
Deloitte study published in
Fortune magazine in October 2021 found that among
Fortune 1000 companies, 73% of CEOs anticipated the work shortage would disrupt their businesses over the next 12 months, 57% believed attracting talent is among their company's biggest challenges, and 35% already expanded benefits to bolster
employee retention. waves like
Striketober. Pictured here are Iowa workers of
John Deere striking as part of the
United Auto Workers on October 20, 2021.Workers in the leisure and hospital industries had relatively high quit rates. The retail industry had the second highest quit rates at 4.7%. From the start of the pandemic to November 2021, approximately one in five
healthcare workers quit their jobs. Amidst the Great Resignation, October 2021 saw a
strike wave known as
Striketober, with over 100,000 American workers participating in or preparing for strike action. While discussing Striketober, some economists described the Great Resignation as workers participating in a
general strike against poor working conditions and low wages. Many American workers took advantage of the labor shortage to trade their current jobs for those with higher salaries, more benefits, and better schedules. Still, the recovery of employment has been uneven, as low-wage sectors—especially leisure, hospitality, retail, manufacturing, and education—lose jobs to those that offer higher income. Although retirees (who need to supplement their incomes) have returned at a rate not seen since 2019, it remains unclear whether workers aged 55 and over, people more likely to quit, will ever return. Some 16 million Americans suffer from long COVID, and of these, 2 to 4 million are kept out of work because if it. The shortage of workers has exacerbated the disruption of the domestic supply chain of the United States. In response to the problem, a number of firms have relocated to states with lower costs of doing business (and possibly with subsidies), a large pool of skilled workers, quality education, high standards of living, and good infrastructure. Some employers in the
fast food industry, like
McDonald's, are providing more benefits, like
college scholarships and healthcare benefits, to bring back workers. In 2023, the labor participation rate of Americans aged 15 to 64 has exceeded peak before the pandemic, already the highest since 2007. Still, although inflation remains high, However, some Americans have regretted leaving their old jobs as they are unsatisfied with their new positions, In order to counter the effects of a labor shortage, many American companies, especially those in the automotive, restaurant, and food delivery industries, have opted to invest more in automation. The robotics industry is booming as a result. The early 2020s also saw faculty members are leaving academia for good, especially those from the humanities. In the life sciences, many postdoctoral fellows have left academia for industry, which offers better salaries. (Also see the
higher education bubble in the United States and
elite overproduction.) By March 2023, the Great Resignation showed signs of petering out with fewer people quitting their positions as the job market became more competitive. Employers no longer needed to offer as many benefits in order to fill vacancies. Wage growth has slowed. The retail and hospitality industries saw quit rates returning to pre-pandemic levels. Many workers were actually working two jobs in order to make ends meet or because they are anxious about the state of the economy. Although unemployment remains under four percent and job growth continues to be positive, Economist Anthony Klotz indicated in February 2023 that the quit rate has fallen as if the pandemic never happened. However, he noted that the health care, retail, transportation and industries were still facing a labor shortage, As 2024 began, layoffs picked up pace, though not to the level that would pose problems for the economy at large. Demand for labor remained strong as the U.S. economy continued to see net job gains. Economist Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute for International Economics argued that the silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic was that it had enabled low-income workers to move towards higher-paying jobs, with dividends for the U.S. economy in terms of workforce participation, wage growth, and productivity, a trend not seen in other
G7 nations. Another consequence of the Great Resignation and the growth of remote working was an oversupply of office spaces, to which developers responded by demolition or conversion to residential units, especially in places with critical housing shortages. Following the upheaval of the great resignation, a number of
neologisms were coined to better highlight employment practices including:
bare minimum Monday,
quiet firing,
quiet hiring,
quiet quitting,
quiet thriving,
loud quitting,
live quitting,
lazy girl job,
personality hire, and
resenteeism. The
Big Stay followed the great resignation in which employers experienced reduced turnover due to a competitive labor market. Many women in the United States have left their full-time or permanent jobs, according to
The New York Times, as part of the broader phenomenon known as the "Great Resignation." Economist Kathryn Anne Edwards notes that the gender pay gap has continued to widen, pointing out that men still earn more than women across all racial and educational groups. This underscores the persistent structural inequalities that have contributed to driving women out of the workforce.
In other countries Australia In February 2022, Australian treasurer
Josh Frydenberg reported that the labor market had been experiencing a "Great Reshuffle" rather than a "Great Resignation". He also reported that over one million workers started new jobs in the three months prior to November 2021, an increase of almost 10% prior to the pre-pandemic average. In the three months prior to February 2022, 300,000 workers reported resigning for better job opportunities, a record number. A main incentive may have been higher pay, as the typical Australian worker who switched jobs received a pay bump of 8% to 10%. It is a rejection of societal pressures to
overwork, such as in the
996 working hour system. Those who participate in
tang ping instead choose to "lie down flat and get over the beatings" via a low-desire, more indifferent attitude towards life. Business magazine
ABC Money claimed the lifestyle resonated with youth disillusioned by the government-endorsed "
Chinese Dream", which encourages a life of hard work and sacrifice without
life satisfaction to show for it. The
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has worked to reject the idea through
state-owned media and
internet censorship, though some party voices offer that the movement provides an opportunity to reflect on how best to cultivate diligence in young generations.
Europe A survey by HR company of 5,000 people in Belgium, France, the U.K., Germany, and the Netherlands, found that employees in Germany had the most COVID-19-related resignations, with 6.0% of the workers leaving their jobs. This was followed by the United Kingdom with 4.7%, the Netherlands with 2.9%, and France with 2.3%. Belgium had the fewest resignations with 1.9%. Some preliminary data show an increase in the number of quits in Italy, starting in the second quarter of 2021. The registered increase was not only in absolute terms, but also in terms of quit rate (computed as quits over employed population) and of quit share (computed as quits over total contract terminations). In the United Kingdom between July and September 2021, over 400,000 workers left their jobs, up from 270,000 two years prior. There were a record high 1.3 million job vacancies in December 2021, or 4.4 vacancies for every 100 jobs. The U.K. workforce got smaller in 2020, the first time in over twenty years, largely due to older people retiring according to Tony Wilson, director of the
Institute for Employment Studies. However, by August 2022, many British workers have returned to their previous positions after quitting and some elderly Britons have opted out of retirement in order to pay their bills in the wake of high inflation. == In popular culture ==