Study sees The Great Resignation heating up in 2023

In early 2021, reports of mass numbers of employees leaving jobs in search of greener, more lucrative pastures led to the phenomenon known as The Great Resignation. While stories of throngs of people quitting their jobs have not been making as many headlines since then, a new survey suggests that the resignations may just be getting started.

Factors like burnout, anxiety and the need for financial security are leading nearly half of all workers to plan on exploring new job options in 2023, according to a new survey by isolved reported in Computer World. Isolved found the numbers of people entertaining new job prospects roughly consistent with what was seen in 2020 and 2021. Of the 37 percent of employees who actually applied for new positions last year, 60 percent changed jobs. Of those, 62 percent did so because they wanted a higher salary, 32 percent because they wanted better benefits and 25 percent wanted more work flexibility.

Retail experienced a uniquely high rate of job attrition over the past few years, and a report by McKinsey from July shows that frontline workers rank the factors inspiring them to change jobs differently than those in other roles.

The quit rate for frontline workers in retail and hospitality was almost twice as high as in other sectors, according to the McKinsey study. Retail workers were 30 percent more likely to leave their jobs than those in other sectors. Flexibility, career development, health/well-being, compensation and a desire for meaningful work were the top five reasons given by frontline workers for wanting to leave their jobs. Frontline workers also reported a larger number of drivers than workers in other areas, with others reporting only one or two major reasons and frontline workers having eight.

Frontline grocery, restaurant and hospitality workers have experienced a few obvious stressors at a greater rate than people in non-public facing jobs throughout the pandemic. For instance, workers in frontline roles have faced greater risk of contracting COVID-19 at work, since there is no option to work from home for cashiers, shelf-stockers and other roles that support physical stores.

• Survey: Employees Are Concerned About Job Security and Exploring Options, Engaging Less – isolved
• The Great Resignation isn’t over yet – Computer World
• The Great Attrition in frontline retail — and what retailers can do about it – McKinsey