What is the Great Resignation and its possible impact on the economy.
Hello dear friends of Leofinance, today I want to talk to you about a topic that has caught my attention recently as it is mentioned over and over again in the economy sections of the most famous news pages. Always highlighting its impact on the economy of developed nations. So I did some research and after a lot of reading and investigating what it is all about, I decided to share it with you, and ask you what you think about it, but first, we have to cover the basics.
What is The Great Resignation (The Great Resignation in Spanish, although this translation is not very explanatory)
The Great Resignation is the name that has been given in the last year to a phenomenon that is impacting the labor market in developed countries, especially the United States, Europe and China, this phenomenon is the abandonment by a large number of people from their jobs, leaving sectors of the economy with a serious lack of manpower.
As of July of this year, 4.4 million Americans had quit their jobs https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/12/great-resignation-us-american-workers-jobs-quitting-quit/ , which makes about 3% of the country's workforce, and hiring in the country is also at a low point, not because there are no vacancies, but because people with the right profile to fill those vacancies are simply not interested. Some sectors such as hospitality and food have been hit harder than the rest with massive resignations, reaching almost 7% of the workforce resignation rate. In short, in the United States today there are about 10.4 million vacant jobs, and 7.4 million unemployed people... But... why is this happening?
Causes
One of the most popular causes you will see on the internet if you research the topic is the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to many changes in the work environment for many people, these changes led many to rethink their work goals and how they viewed working itself, it is said that many people leave their jobs because they do not want to return to work in person but would rather work from home, and therefore leave their jobs to pursue these goals. Of course, during the pandemic many people lost their jobs, some businesses ceased to exist altogether, those who had a decent job held on to it, but this brought some people exploitation and overwork as the economic contraction meant that many companies had to do the same work with less profit. But because now that the restrictions have been lifted people have not flocked to look for jobs.
It is true that many people decided to use what they learned during the pandemic to look for work options that would allow them a better work-life balance. But all of this seems to me to be a very simplistic res, since I saw the original figures I realized that there was something else going on in the background.
Unstated causes.
One theory I like a lot is that people have realized that for the first time in history, companies need them more than they need companies, especially with the amount of social programs being pushed by governments. The rising cost of living and inflation, combined with the experiences of the pandemic, have led many to believe that their jobs are worth more than what companies are willing to pay, especially if they are in positions where they are exposed to the public. Such as the restaurant and hospitality industry. Basically we could say that this is a non-centralized strike, the proof is that it has physically manifested itself in the streets of the United States as well with the huge October strike, launched for the same reasons I cite here... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striketober
People are tired, especially young people, one of the little mentioned consequences of the pandemic is that it exacerbated the way many companies related to their employees, the companies that had a healthy relationship with their workers supported them through the hard times and bore the burdens together with them, while others demanded better results without yielding to their level of profits and making cuts with the excuse of the pandemic, this 40 years ago would not have had major consequences, but today we have a generation of workers who are no longer willing to accept unfair treatment, the proof of this is that the largest number of resignations occurs in people between 25 to 40 years.
%2B%20age%20groups%20experienced%20slightly%20higher%20resignation%20rates%20than%20in%202020%20(but%20not%20as%20significant%20an%20increase%20as%20that%20of%20the%2030%2D45%20group).
Couple this with the fact that one of the consequences of the isolation of the pandemic is that people have become, on average, more unpleasant to others, and the first to set off alarm bells were the airlines, https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210629-whats-driving-the-us-air-rage-spike. Such a situation makes working with the public a less attractive option every day, especially for the new generation who have other alternatives.
The death of the American dream, although since such a concept was created it was not possible for everyone, the new generation did the numbers and realized that it is simply not possible with an average paying job to maintain a home, a wife, a couple of kids, the dog and have a car, such a lifestyle, the icon of the American dream, is what is classified as middle class, well to be middle class you need from $45,000 per year to $130,000 in some cases, while the average American earnings are $30,000 per year. Phenomena such as inflation and the fact that most companies are unwilling to raise wages mean that a young person can no longer afford to pay for school with a part-time job. Rising housing prices create a situation where fewer and fewer young people are owning their own homes, living with their parents even though they are employed... all of this makes people simply more willing to give up and take a chance and pursue another opportunity. Because no matter how hard they try, no matter how long they hold out, their life still won't get better... https://alleghenycampus.com/19741/opinion/the-american-dream-is-dead-and-barely-existed-to-begin-with/
Impact
The impact of all this remains to be seen, but we can speculate a couple of things, the first is that this whole situation inevitably has to lead to a rethinking of wages in the United States, since a lack of labor force jeopardizes its status as an economic power, mainly in front of countries like China, which although affected by a similar phenomenon, are not in a situation as complex as the United States. Similar situations have been created in our southern countries because sometimes, as in my case, it is preferable to work on my own independently creating content than for a company that will consume all my time and will not leave me any benefits in the long term. Globally I think we will see a generation of workers more aware and less willing to endure the injustices of the system, and willing to pressure large corporations for better wages and working conditions. Because in the end, they need us as much as we need them.
Conclusions
As someone who quit his job during the pandemic, and dedicated himself to different projects on his own, (creating content for this community is one of them) I can really understand why people in the north are less and less willing to accept abusive labor relations, without clear opportunities for growth and without proper remuneration in the short or long term. And they decide to quit to look for better horizons. I sincerely hope that this will have a positive long term outcome for the workers of the world.
Recommended Bibliographic Reference
[1] the american dream is dead and barely existed to begin with/a>
[2] who is driving the great resignation /a>
[3] the incredibly simple reason behind the great resignation/a>