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- According to a recently published report, about 4 million workers in the US quit their jobs this April.
- This is the highest number of resignations in a month in the last 20 years, and experts are attributing this to a number of factors.
- Factor 1: Severe labour shortage has given people the confidence to leave their jobs.
- In March 2021, for every job opening in the US, there were 1.4 available workers; if we consider the average of the last 20 years, the US had 2.8 workers per available job.
- In some sectors (like education, public health, etc.), there are more job openings than available workers, and this means there are plenty of opportunities if an employee decides to quit.
- The labour shortage is being attributed to immigration restrictions, increasing government-led unemployment benefits (COVID-19), and hard-to-find childcare (COVID-19).
- Factor 2: Work from home (WFH) means big companies are expanding everywhere.
- WFH means no geographical constraint, and so, an employee may get offered higher pay from a company in another state or another country.
- This adds to the total jobs available even more.
- Factor 3: Mental stress because of the pandemic.
- In a survey, many workers cited the coronavirus as a primary reason for their unhappiness on the job and their ultimate departure.
- A lot of people quit because of the fear of carrying coronavirus home, especially where colleagues and managers were lax about the mask rules.
- Factor 4: Rage-quitting (angrily abandoning the job).
- A McDonald’s employee recently quit his job and made his rage evident by posting an angry sign at a local drive-thru; this has brought attention to the rising rage-quitting trend as well.
- Rage-quitting is particularly prominent among the hourly workers (who get paid based on the number of hours and don’t have fixed pay) in low-wage occupations like retail.
- E.g., Considering the factors mentioned above, someone making US$8 per hour and getting 10 hours in a week is no longer ready to put up with an unfavourable work environment.
Image courtesy of Andrea Piacquadio through Pexels
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