The trend of millions of Americans quitting their jobs in what has been dubbed the Great Resignation shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the job market may be getting even more volatile. The latest Fidelity Financial Resolutions Survey finds 39% of U.S. workers plan to find a new job within the next year. That number jumps to 47% among Gen Z, those below age 25.
With some 11 million job openings nationwide, this is an unprecedented time in the U.S. job market. "We have record numbers of people leaving positions, and we've never seen turnover at such high levels," says Andy Challenger, Vice President of the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "But, we've also never seen the economy go into a hiatus for several months, then recover over the course of a year."
Challenger believes this high turnover rate is a result of companies trying to compensate for the labor shortage by offering better pay and benefits. "There are still five or six million people missing from the labor market...they haven't come back from the pandemic," he tells KTRH. "Companies keep raising wages and trying to lure them back into the job market, but instead what they're doing is causing people to switch jobs."
"The things companies are offering---a lot of those advantages go to switchers, people who leave their current company and move to another organization to take advantage of those offers," he continues.
While the past two years have proven as unpredictable as ever, Challenger believes this volatility will subside gradually as more people continue to re-enter the workforce. "The factors that have been keeping people out of the market---COVID, unemployment benefits, child care issues---hopefully will recede in 2022, and we'll move back to more normalcy," he says.
Hopefully.
Photo: Juice Images RF