In April 2021, a record 4 million Americans quit their jobs. Fast-forward to September 2021, and 4.4 million quit in one month alone. Wow.
How did we get here?
Way back in 2020, resignation rates had fallen to the lowest levels in a decade. The pandemic had caused plenty of fear, uncertainty and doubt, companies had shut down, business had stalled, and people stayed put.
But as they hunkered down, workers began to reflect on their relationship with work. And as they did, they realized that certain aspects of work just didn’t work for them anymore. The traffic, the expensive parking or business wardrobe, the commute, the daily grind suddenly seemed excessive. The call to a higher quality of life—as we considered our mortality—was deafening. And then, the vaccination program entered the scene and gained momentum. By April 2021 the resignation trend had reversed, and it started to look like the beginnings of a hockey stick.
Thankfully, Zety recently conducted a survey of 900+ American workers to get to the bottom of this dilemma. Their findings are below, in infographics, because it’s time for us to unpack this.
2021 Study on The Great Resignation conducted by Zety
ZETY 2021
The biggest causes might not surprise you, but let’s look at their impact:
There are currently around 154 million employed people in the US. So if we extrapolate Zety’s findings to the whole working population, then around 75.5 million people have quit their jobs in 2021.
That’s roughly twice the entire population of Canada.
What can employers do to retain, attract, inspire their workers?
What made the grass greener?
ZETY 2021
What You Can Do
See our image below:
The Cultural GAME Plan: Create a Passionately Engaged Culture
SMARTTRIBES INSTITUTE LLC 2022
The Net-Net
Yes, it’s a mess out there. But now you have a map to navigate it. And the great news is that by intentionally creating the 5 items above in your culture, you’ll have a more compelling workplace, and navigate far fewer resignations far more easily.