Low Pay, Bad Bosses, and Lack of Growth Opportunities Are Causing Historic Quit Levels According to Study; Trends Will Force New Approaches from Employers
American workers are deeply dissatisfied with their employers, which has led to record levels of resignations and the rise of worker movements according to the Joblist Q1 2022 U.S. Job Market Report. The report, announced by Joblist, a job search platform that recently launched a job posting product to help employers hire, details numerous worker frustrations, including toxic workplace culture, poor management, low pay, and lack of career growth opportunities.
Joblist’s quarterly study, which surveyed over 18,000 job seekers in the first three months of 2022, reveals certain root causes of the Great Resignation and ways that employers can respond in order to improve their relationship with employees. The report includes the following key findings:
- One in four who quit their last job were “angry” or “very angry” at the time they decided to quit, and the vast majority (84%) did not have a new job lined up when they resigned.
- The most common reasons for quitting jobs currently are toxic workplace cultures (30%), bad management (28%), and low pay or lack of benefits (19%).
- Even employed workers are dissatisfied. 49% of employees who are looking for a new job believe their current employer does not care about their wellbeing, while 44% feel mistreated by their boss and 50% think they are not paid fairly. Nearly three in four (73%) do not see an opportunity for growth or skill development at work.
- 77% of job seekers say they can personally relate to the frustrations driving the rise of worker movements such as strikes, unionization, and the Great Resignation. However, a much smaller percentage actually support unionization (24%) and strikes (10%).
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The Great Resignation Rolls On
Nearly 48 million American quit their jobs in 2021. With over 11 million job openings currently, which equates to nearly two openings per unemployed worker, candidates seem comfortable quitting their job without a new one lined up. In fact, 84% of survey respondents who quit their previous job did not have a new job secured before they quit. Workers in education and hospitality were most likely to quit due to low pay or lack of benefits (28%); workers in the retail and hospitality categories were most likely to cite bad managers (37%) as a reason for quitting.
American Workers are Deeply Dissatisfied
Fewer than one in three employed job seekers see opportunities for growth in their current company. Only about half of employees think their employer cares about their wellbeing; despite this, 68% report feeling a sense of loyalty to their present employer. While nearly half of those who quit their previous job did so on good terms, 23% report being angry or very angry with their former company. Educators and hospitality workers are the most likely to report being very angry with their former employers.
Toxic workplaces, difficult bosses, and low pay
Job seekers responded that low pay (60%), a toxic workplace culture (49%), workers reassessing their priorities (44%), lack of benefits (41%), difficult bosses (40%), and job burnout related to the pandemic (39%) are driving recent workers movements like unionization, strikes, and the Great Resignation.
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The Rise of Worker Movements
77% of job seekers can personally relate to the sentiments behind recent worker movements, led by education, healthcare, retail and warehouse workers (between 85% and 88% in these four categories). Nevertheless, a much smaller percentage of job seekers actually support organized labor efforts such as unionization (24%) and strikes (10%).
Assessing Policy Ideas
Job seekers are split on whether any public measures can help alleviate their collective frustrations around pay, benefits, work conditions, and work-life balance. The most popular policy ideas include raising the minimum wage (42%), shortening the work week (38%), extending universal health coverage (37%), and instituting a universal basic income (19%). On the other side, 29% do not support any of these measures.
“Workers are demanding more from their employers,” stated Kevin Harrington, CEO of Joblist. “The Great Resignation is at least partly the result of companies failing to meet these new expectations – around pay, culture, career development, and more. Employers will need to adapt in order to attract and retain talent moving forward.”
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