The workplace landscape has been experiencing a dramatic transformation in recent years, primarily due to the pandemic. The shift has led employees to re-evaluate their professional choices, looking for better possibilities, improved work-life balance, and job satisfaction. This phenomenon is called the Great Resignation, when people collectively quit their jobs throughout numerous sectors.
According to a report, in 2022, an average of 4.5 million people quit their jobs per month. However, in 2023, the number had decreased to below 4 million monthly.
To determine which sectors were most affected by the great resignation, Moody analyzed data from the labor department and published a list of 12 significant industries with higher job quit rates.
Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities
The transportation sector is experiencing a massive shortage of employees. According to the report, the industry needs over 80,000 truck drivers in 2024, which is expected to increase to 162,000 by 2030.
The primary reason for this shortage is the increasing quit rate. By January 2024, nearly 2.4 percent of employees had quit their jobs in this sector, which is 0.2 percent higher than in 2019. More young employees are quitting their jobs due to a lack of interest and the increasing use of robots replacing humans.
Tech Sector
The tech sector is facing a shortage of employees as 72 percent of employees expecting to quit their jobs. The primary reasons are high expectations from workers and a significant performance gap.
By January 2024, 1.7 percent of employees had left the sector, compared to 1.6 percent in 2019. Employees started looking for jobs in another industry that offered greater stability, better opportunities, and higher wages.
Manufacturing Sector
The manufacturing sector is experiencing a high rate of job quit for several reasons. By January 2024, around 1.7 percent of employees had quit their jobs, which is 0.1 percent higher than in 2019. A report shows that the industry faces a shortage of over 220,000 workers.
Low pay, long working hours, and the rise of the two-tiered pay system contribute to the mass quitting. During the pandemic, there was a surge in demand for various products like furniture, TV, food items, and more, which led to increased hiring. However, as demand normalized, hiring slowed down. It impacts the workers’ wages, leading them to quit their jobs.
Leisure and hospitality
The restaurant and bar industry has been impacted severely by the pandemic. Numerous outlets shut down, leading to 5.5 percent of employees quitting their jobs.
Even two years later, the industry is still experiencing a shortage of workers, with a job quit rate of 4.6 percent by January 2024. Many workers quit their jobs due to low wages and better opportunities in other sectors.
Health care and social assistance
The job quit rate in the healthcare and social assistance sectors was 2 percent by January 2024. Workers in these industries experienced burnout during the pandemic, increasing the quit rate. Low pay and heavy workload are also driving workers to quit their jobs, leading to a shortage of skilled workers.
Government Sector
The government sector is also struggling with job quit, with the job quit rate remaining at 0.8 percent in January 2024, the same as in 2019. The high quit rate is mainly due to toxic workplaces, heavy workloads leading to burnout, and higher pay in the private sector.
Many employees feel that the government sector offers limited opportunities for growth and development. This shift highlights the need for changes in the sector to provide a better work environment and growth opportunities to retain employees.
Financial activities
Employees are quitting their jobs in the financial sector to seek better work-life balance. The job quit rate in the industry by January 2024 was 1.3 percent.
The unpredictability in the market, stress, and anxiety due to the demanding targets and toxic management are the reasons contributing to the high quit rate in the sector. To address this issue, companies need to focus on improving leadership and work culture to provide better work-life balance to the employees.
Professional and business services
White-collar workers, including lawyers, architects, engineers, and office managers, quit their jobs. The job quit rate in these sectors reached 2.5 percent in January 2024. The high job quit rate is largely due to the rising popularity of early retirement and work-from-home jobs.
Additionally, due to inflation, hiring has slowed down in these sectors, leading to fewer opportunities for growth and lower average pay.
Construction
The industry suffers as more employees leave their jobs searching for remote work. By January 2024, the job quit rate was 1.8 percent.
A report showed that almost 197,250 quit their construction job per month in 2021. Long working hours, poor work-life balance, and limited job flexibility lead to dissatisfaction and higher resignations.
Mining and logging
By January 2024, the mining and logging industry had a job quit rate of 1.6 percent. Economic instability, rising energy prices, and fluctuating crude oil prices contribute to the sector’s uncertainty.
Many workers don’t want to cope with these uncertainties and quit their jobs. Additionally, the retirement of baby boomers increases expectations for new employees, driving more employees to leave due to these high expectations.
Retail
The retail sector also struggled significantly during the pandemic; many people are switching to remote jobs, leading to a shortage of retail workers. Low pay, long working hours, and monotonous tasks push employees to quit. Instead of toiling hard in retail for pennies, many prefer to leave and look for better opportunities at high pay in other sectors.
Service Sectors
Car repair, barbershops, dry cleaning, funeral homes, and pet care are some services that fall under this category. The pandemic badly impacted these service sectors, leading to mass quitting. In 2019, nearly 2.3 percent of employees left their jobs.
However, these sectors are recovering, with numerous job vacancies, resulting in higher worker demand. To attract talent, employers have raised wages from 5.3 percent to 4.6 percent. This wage boost has prompted workers to quit for better pay opportunities.
By January 2024, almost 2.9 percent of employees had left their jobs, which is 0.4 percent higher than in 2019.