Two-Thirds of Workers Who Quit Their Jobs Don't Have Another One Lined up
The Great Resignation just won't quit. Spurred on by a tight labor market and a pervasive shift in the way Americans view work, employees are still quitting at record rates — often with no other job lined up.
A new survey of 2,200 workers conducted by job search platform FlexJobs found that 68% of workers who had recently quit their jobs did so without another job offer on the table.
The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that nearly 4.4 million people voluntarily left their jobs in February, just slightly less than the 4.5 million people that quit their jobs last November — an all-time high.
Why are workers quitting jobs?
FlexJobs’ survey found that the most popular reason for quitting was toxic company culture, which was cited by 62% of respondents. Close behind was low salary, cited by 59% of respondents. Other popular reasons included poor management (cited by 56% of respondents) and lack of a healthy work-life balance (cited by 49% of respondents).
“Our data clearly highlights that toxic company culture drives people to leave their jobs more than any other single factor,” Sara Sutton, Founder and CEO of FlexJobs, said in a news release. “Especially with many companies now transitioning to permanent hybrid workplaces, it’s critical that leaders emphasize building healthy cultures that are inclusive of all their workers’ needs and locations, whether they’re on-site or remote.”
Research indicates that to attract workers in today's market, employers need to do more than just raise wages (though that certainly helps, especially amid inflation running above 9% in some parts of the country).
Last month, a study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found that higher wages aren’t as effective at encouraging millennial and Gen X workers to take jobs as they were for baby boomers when that group was the same age.
In other words: higher pay alone isn't necessarily going to attract employees or stop people from quitting, and employers who want to remain competitive should consider ramping up other perks like work-from-home flexibility and retirement benefits.
As the new FlexJobs report shows, workers who aren't getting what they want from employers are willing to walk away — even if they don't have a better opportunity nailed down.