{"id":2112,"date":"2022-04-25T04:00:31","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T09:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futureofworkexchange.com\/?p=2112"},"modified":"2022-04-24T17:52:15","modified_gmt":"2022-04-24T22:52:15","slug":"when-will-the-greatest-resignation-become-the-great-resettling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/futureofworkexchange.com\/2022\/04\/25\/when-will-the-greatest-resignation-become-the-great-resettling\/","title":{"rendered":"When Will \u201cThe Greatest Resignation\u201d Become \u201cThe Great Resettling\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we take a 30,000-foot purview of what\u2019s happening right now regarding “The Great Resignation,” it looks pretty dire: nearly four-plus million workers have left their positions each month since October of last year. Not counting numbers for March (which have not yet been announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics), that\u2019s nearly 16 million people who have resigned, quit, etc. over a four-month period.<\/p>\n

Economist Arindrajit Dube recently sparked an interesting discussion on why he believes that The Great Resignation is more of a \u201cGreat Reshuffling,\u201d given that data points to workers\u2019 resignations concentrated in industries such as retail, restaurants, hospitality, mining and logging, etc. And, interestingly enough, just last week, he tweeted<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There is no Great Resignation … people are not leaving the workforce. Prime-age employment rate is back to 2019 levels! What we have is a Great Reshuffling: workers moving to better paying jobs. That’s what a competitive labor market actually looks like!<\/em><\/p>\n

So, if we were to agree with Dube, the approach towards what\u2019s happening right now would look something like this: workers, unhappy with wages, left their positions en masse for better compensation, creating a \u201cweird\u201d labor market that is now competitive compared to the disconcerted workforce foundation that we experienced earlier in the pandemic.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not one to disagree with a talented economist who bases his public insights on hard data. However, I\u2019d like to throw some additional thoughts onto the pile to reflect some of the other influences on The Great\/Greatest Resignation. For one, Dube\u2019s only miss in his statement is that there\u2019s so much more to resignations than compensation. In fact, we\u2019ve talked about them<\/a> (at-length!) here at the Future of Work Exchange<\/em>. Purposeful work, flexibility, remote and hybrid work options, etc.\u2026these are absolutely critical facets that contribute to the ongoing, massive numbers of resignations.<\/p>\n

What many pundits seem to be getting at in their messaging is this: why is the labor market so competitive even though 16 million workers (not including those who had done so in March) left their positions voluntarily over the past several months? Is The Great Resignation even real<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Well, yes, it is. We just cannot<\/em> argue with the fact that millions of people left their roles; the numbers are there to prove that. It\u2019s what\u2019s happening after the resignations<\/em> that is so vitally important. This is where I feel what is happening is more of a \u201cGreat Resettling\u201d rather than a \u201cGreat Reshuffling,\u201d as workers who have left their jobs are \u201cresettling\u201d themselves within a different dynamic.<\/p>\n

Economist Dean Baker brought up an interesting point in an article<\/a> from a few weeks ago, stating, \u201cThe number of people who reported being self-employed (both incorporated and unincorporated) in March was 618,000 above the average for 2019. The fact that self-employment remains high, even as the labor market has tightened enormously, indicates that self-employment is a choice rather than an act of desperation.\u201d <\/em>(Future of Work Exchange <\/em>research discovered this, as well, back in the summer of 2021: 43% of the workforce was considered “non-employee” before<\/em> the pandemic and increased to over 47% during<\/em> it.)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The word \u201cchoice\u201d in that statement means all of the difference between \u201creshuffling\u201d and \u201cresettling.\u201d A great reshuffle, at least to me, would mean that workers are moving in vastly different pathways than they were in pre-pandemic times. A great resettlement means that:<\/p>\n