‘Mass burnout’, ‘massive abandonment’ or ‘big resignation’. All this rhetoric is about the big change in the U.S. labor market.
At least 20 million employees resigned in the second half of 2021 alone. Millions of positions remain open now, while salaries have increased. However, it is known that older people leave the labour market permanently while those who resign seek jobs on better terms. At the same time, it is thought that this trend will continue this year. So what’s behind this wave? Do you live an unemployed life? Or is this just a temporary dream that will lead to more fatigue?
Various reasons
According to some analyses, employees are fed up with both unfair working conditions and managers who do not support them. Due to the lack of a balance between the necessity of work and enjoying life, many employees are resigning. Anti-business movements on online forums in the US, Australia and Europe bring together hundreds of thousands of people who want to end the culture of exhaustion while achieving their career goals. Employees are urged to put their own needs in place of the needs and requirements of the employer.
While the period of looking for another job or source of income is known to be exhausting, psychologists think that staying in a hated job can be worse than being unemployed, even if they disapprove of impulsive resignation decisions. Reasons such as dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety, insomnia, decreased self-esteem, lack of motivation in the workplace pose a danger to the mental and physical health of employees. Unhappiness at work is reflected in the home environment, while dissatisfaction with work can lead to problems such as headaches, abdominal pain and weight gain.
Repulsive reasons
These reasons, which have already existed for years, are accompanied mainly by the Covid-19 pandemic, the emergence of the phenomenon of working from home, the explosion in the digital transformation of the global business world, labor shortages, the demands for increase in pensions and change.
Professor Anthony Klotz, of the Department of Management Sciences at Texas A&M University, who first coined the term ‘The Great Resignation’, adds that the need for skilled and meritorified employees is increasing in high-demand industries such as technology.
Most U.S. people who resign are only looking for better jobs, U.S. National Public Radio said, noting that there are many job opportunities that give employees flexibility, such as higher salaries, better benefits, more comprehensive insurance, and work-from-home work, which causes employees to negotiate for themselves.
Increased salaries and wages
The difficulties caused by employers struggling to fill vacancies in the wave of resignations and intense pressures on existing employees have led to an increase in wages and wages. Wages for those with jobs increased by 5.9 percent and those who changed jobs increased by 8 percent, the ADP Research Institute reported. These record figures reflect the competition companies face this year.
Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, said that a wage increase had already been recorded in the wake of the outbreak, but that the latest changes had become natural and more feasible, not an increase in inflation but due to a limited labor market. Therefore, referring to the competition between companies, Richardson says that large companies have the opportunity to rapidly increase wages, offer special bonuses and more flexible conditions.
ADP points out that employees at companies with a maximum of 500 to 999 employees benefit from the overall increase in wages. AdP stressed that new hires in areas such as professional business services and information technology are lucky with an average wage increase of 12 percent, and that wages in the entertainment and hospitality sectors have stagnated due to the epidemic. He adds that wages for generation Z, who are not over 25, increased by 13.1 per cent and those given to millennials aged 26 to 41 by 9.2 per cent.
Searching for talent
Recent research by a market research company shows that meritorized managers make 48 percent more profits for their organizations than the average manager. That’s why companies are trying to attract meritorized executives. Auto giant General Motors wants to fill 400 positions in the software business by hiring the world’s top software developers this year, the Detroit Free Press reports. Zirâ company designs new technologies for the cars they produce.
On the other hand, small companies and restaurants compete to provide better quality of life and better communication to employees other than salaries. As a matter of fact, some employees do not want to leave their jobs thanks to healthy communication with their superiors, even if they know they will make more money elsewhere.
The wave continues
PlanBeyond, a marketing strategies research firm, stresses that the huge wave of resignations will continue in 2022, or even in the coming years. PlanBeyond’s survey of 1,000 employees aged 18 to 64 asked them about their work plans, feelings about their colleagues and managers, salaries and career opportunities over the next six months.
According to the study, 42 percent of respondents are considering resigning within the next six months. Employees aged 44 and under tend to consider quitting, while 21 percent of those surveyed say that being appreciated is a strong reason to stay at work, and that the most important reason behind thinking about quitting is the feeling of not being appreciated.
The study reports that female employees are strongly affected by the weakness of auditors and managers, and that a lack of respect or trust in the manager is highly effective in making female employees consider quitting.
Employees also want a free work environment, Sharkik’l Avsat reported, as cited by Independent Arabia. One of the main factors behind employees thinking about quitting is that they feel they can’t be like them at work. It seems that the rest of them feed off their ancient relationships.
Economic impact
However, if it is proven that those who have left their jobs in the last few months will be unemployed in the coming months, the growth in the workforce will decrease. As a matter of fact, the workforce is currently facing low birth rates, repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, and low migration rates even before the Covid-19 pandemic. This could limit potential growth in the economy, which is critical to living standards and market performance.
Labor shortages can curb profits at some companies. However, employment is expected to improve ahead of the end of this year.
