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The Great Migration wasn't as real as the headlines made it look, though. It was an artifact of time-shifting from the pandemic. Normal job switching didn't happen in 2020 and became pent-up demand in 2021. So the numbers looked high for a short duration, but it wasn't really any fundamental shift, just the same activity pushed into a shorter time period. Look at the total numbers from 2019-2024 and I bet it's about the same as any five-year period.

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Correct, the pandemic led to pent-up demand, and the Great Migration was what happened when job switching became tenable again. But the effects of that pent-up demand are a larger than normal group of people who now have the same relative tenure at their new organizations, and demand is building up again, as more and more people who've been with their company for 3+ years are looking for a change, but can't find one in the current hiring climate. So I predict we'll see a similar wave of large-scale job hopping once conditions become more favorable.

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