Study shows how states queue up during 'Great Resignation'

With Americans quitting their jobs at record rates during the so-called "Great Resignation," WalletHub today released its report on 2022's States with the Highest Job Resignation rates.

WalletHub ranked the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on how frequently people are leaving their places of employment. Below, you can see highlights from the report.

To view the full report and your state's rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-job-resignation-rates/101077

Expert Commentary

What are the main factors that are influencing this shift in the labor force?

"The main reason for higher resignations is that more people are leaving previous jobs for new and better ones. The labor market has been quite strong over the past few months and firms are heavily competing for scarce workers. At the same time, we have seen inflation reach its highest rates in four decades. Individual firms and industries respond to this differently. Some can raise wages to keep up with inflation but many are not. Workers will naturally shift toward those offering higher wages and leave those where real wages (wages adjusted for inflation) are falling. Furthermore, if wages for existing workers are stickier than wages for new workers, some workers may need to change employers even in the same industry to get competitive wages. Finally, the economic disruptions during the pandemic gave many workers an opportunity, and sometimes a necessity, to try new things including new jobs."
John Winters - Professor, Iowa State University; Past President, Southern Regional Science Association

"I think of the factors driving the high turnover rate in the push and pull categories. On the push side, the pandemic created a natural point for workers to reevaluate their careers and work-life balance. With the reopening of workplaces, this effect has accelerated and the large volume of job openings is allowing workers to make these changes with less risk of prolonged joblessness. On the pull side, the tight labor market is drawing workers out of jobs they might have been satisfied with to pursue opportunities for career advancement and higher compensation."
Joshua M. Congdon-Hohman - Associate Professor, College of the Holy Cross

How is the decrease in labor force participation affecting the employers?

"Evidence...has shown that voluntary turnover leads to losses in both human capital and social capital, disrupts workplace relationships, and eventually hurts collective performance. Furthermore, the decreases in the labor force participation directly affect the remaining employees by causing the 'turnover contagion'. One employee's resignation prompts coworkers to follow the suit because those coworkers may see their jobs as less satisfying and experience negative feelings about the need to complete the extra duties. This collective turnover causes damage to the effectiveness of the unit and overall organization."
Jia (Jasmine) Hu, Ph.D. - Department of Management and Human Resources, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University

"By tightening the labor supply, the reduction in the labor force participation has put pressure on employers to improve work environments and raise compensation in order to compete for the small pool of available workers and retain the staff they already have."
Joshua M. Congdon-Hohman - Associate Professor, College of the Holy Cross

Have the pandemic and the remote working determined, in any way, this change in the labor force?

"Covid-19 forced many companies to abandon office buildings and empty cubicles. Eliminating the office commute can save at least one hour a day for the average worker. The pandemic proved that being in the office does not necessarily equal greater productivity, and some firms, continued to thrive without meeting in person. Companies like Airbnb and Twitter commit to a fully remote workplace. Indeed, few companies are keen on returning to the office five days a week and many adopt a hybrid work schedule. The new (normal) practice challenges the long-held belief that in-person interactions are better for fostering collaboration, inspiring innovation, and instilling a shared sense of purpose and community. The challenge for companies is how to balance letting and trusting employees to set their own schedules and forcing them to come in on specific days to maximize the usefulness of office time. Offering employees greater work flexibility and instilling trust and appreciation for their work may be one of the more meaningful actions to retain talents."
Zhike Lei, Ph.D. - Associate Professor; Director, Center for Applied Research (CAR), Pepperdine University

"The pandemic rapidly expanded options for and familiarity with remote work. However, not all jobs and not all workers are well-suited to remote work. The increase in remote work probably at least partially contributed to the increased shuffling of workers between jobs as people resorted and rematched to jobs that best fit them. At this point, though, there is less 'new' exposure to remote work, so its effect on worker turnover has likely diminished."
John Winters - Professor, Iowa State University; Past President, Southern Regional Science Association