The Great Resignation Is Accelerating | Hacker News Reader

The Great Resignation Is Accelerating

theatlantic.com

40 pointsedward10 comments

Has there been any demographic analysis of who is quitting?

Age cohort, gender, income group, population density (large urban/small urban/suburban/rural) -- that kind of stuff?

The BLS has quits by industry and region: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t04.htm , so that's something.

Also, how much of this is just pent-up turnover? I imagine that many people effectively put their plans on hold for a while when covid hit, and now they are acting on them.

This Statista chart from August makes the quit rate look a bit underwhelming (i.e. it has returned to trend), and the job opening surge a direct consequence of the layoffs earlier: https://www.statista.com/chart/25036/job-openings-quits-and-...

You might be onto something regarding pent-up/delayed turnover. I recall at the very beginning of the pandemic with the severe lockdown in China, there was a lot of discussion about how after the lockdown was lifted there was a spike in divorces and other things that were put off during the lockdown. This might be something similar.

Conceptually how different that is from people having a change of goals and whatnot might be murkier than it seems at first glance though.

(UK based) About 18 months ago, poor promotion prospects and minimal yearly wage increases brought me to the point where I realised I was punishing myself waiting for things to improve.

So I polished my LinkedIn profile and made myself visible to recruiters.

I'll soon start a new job with double my current salary and none of the daily grind of the current one. The Great Resignation has served me well.

Congratulations. How long ago did you start looking? Did it take all 18 months to find a new position or did you find some as soon as you started looking?

July 2020 and I had my first interview in August (unsuccessful), then another in April (also unsuccessful) until I was offered the one I'll start soon.

How are people paying for everything? Is everyone just trading crypto to eat?

Savings are at an all time high after the stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment. It just ran out in september but i’m sure the savings will hold people over for a bit.

It's almost like America was a demand starved economy with everyone in debt, as if all the money that would normally flow through the exchange of goods and services and generate GDP and a healthy economy were hoarded by an elite few.

I mean, that's still true, it's just that we printed money for a bit. We'll go back to wage slavedom soon.

That's basically it. Money is being drained out of the economy which forces governments to pour some more with debt. Either let those who actually need the money work or stop people from withholding money from the economy.

The moved out of the city, away from their service job, back with their parents/siblings to do some online training/classes/studying and get a better job.

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