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An impact of COVID-19’s onslaught was the rise in job loss, unemployment and what’s become known as “The Great Resignation.”
Across industries, many Americans chose to quit their jobs during the pandemic — with late November reaching a 20-year high “quit rate” according to Pew Research. That month, a record 4.5 million workers left their jobs.
For the year’s grand total, 47.4 Americans voluntarily left their jobs, CNN reports. What might be most interesting about Pew Research’s latest findings is that when asked, only 31% of Americans surveyed said their decision to quit their job was related to coronavirus.
As for the biggest reasons why Americans left the workforce in droves, unhappiness with toxic workplace cultures and a feeling of not being compensated for their worth was eye opening.
“At least a third” of those surveyed said their top reasons included being paid too little, no job advancement opportunities and feeling disrespected at work.
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Employees also cited issues with child care, not enough flexibility with their work shifts, work benefits that weren’t good enough, wanting to relocate, exhaustive hours on the job, too little hours working and employer vaccinate mandates as other reasons why they left the workforce.
While The Great Resignation sparked lots of mainstream conversation about the future of the workforce and economy overall, Americans “for the most part” have reportedly found new jobs that better suit their needs, which is reassuring.
Even still, “sizeable shares” of those surveys shared that some of the things that made them quit in 2021 “are either worse or unchanged” at their new jobs.
“When you think about The Great Resignation, [some Black women] are resigning and quitting because they desire more flexibility, they want to have more control over their time and a lot of women are starting businesses because they want to have control over their income potential,” said Dionne Mahaffey, a tech founder named to Forbes’ 2021 Next 1000 list of upstart entrepreneurs who are redefining the American Dream, while speaking with MADAMENOIRE.
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Pew Research’s data collection was extensive and shared insight into how various levels of educational attainment, age and gender also played roles in who’s participated in The Great Resignation and why. Read more from the source here.
