It’s no surprise that the pandemic has impacted the labor market like every other sector of the economy. What’s more surprising is that it has impacted the labor world for the better.
Since the pandemic began in March 2020, in the US, there’s an above-average quitting rate month on month. In July 2021, it made a record! 4 Million workers left their jobs and there were 10.9 million job openings at the end of July.
Bigger records; More quitting
As workers naturally experienced burnout in sectors like Healthcare, e-commerce, transportation, etc, they reflected upon their jobs only to find out that they were not at all fulfilled, to aggravate the situation further, the jobs didn’t have anything to do with work-life balance, hence workers made the bold decision to quit!
There were a lot of people who had the same reckoning, to be precise, the quit rate, which is the total number of workers quitting in the total employed workforce, rose to the highest levels since 2000.
4.4 Million jobs were quit in September, incremental to the 4.3 Million figure in August.
Finding logic!
Now, let’s try to dive a little deeper into the matter to see how things are playing out! So, for starters the inflation in the US economy is running at an average of 5% which translates to rising prices of almost every necessity you want, if your wage is increasing less than 5%, you won’t be able to pay your rent, bills, etc thus leading to quitting eventually.
Inflation is just the starting point!
Startups; Remote work; and pressure
When you think about a warehousing job, what comes to your mind?
Workers are treated like robots and expected to do 10-12 hour shifts with minimal breaks and that too, being monitored all day! What do you expect a worker to do in a situation like this?
Plus, the world of work has changed especially in the last 18 months with WFH (Work from Home) going mainstream, you can work for any company at the comfort of your couch, so if you have some skill set, it’s an incentive to quit so demanding & unsafe jobs to stay with your loved ones while you work.
Moreover, we also have a strong wave of startups coming up! Many workers who are leaving their jobs are starting their ventures, and being their boss!
Summing up:
While there’s a red hot labor market facing the employers, they’re doing whatever it takes to:
a) Attract workers
b) Retain them
But this seems to be a new normal where workers have got their priorities right in terms of what they expect from a job! So, managers & employers might need to become accountable, have an employee-driven culture, etc. These things are harder said than done but if things remain as is, the great resignation might turn into a greater resignation soon.