The Great Resignation Is A National Trend In The US, JOLTS Report Finds

The latest State Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTS) report showed one unifying sign: the Great Resignation is a national trend.
What’s driving the Great Resignation, why are workers searching for better opportunities, and is this trend set to continue as we move into 2022?
Allwork.Space reached out to ZipRecruiter’s Lead Economist, Sinem Buber, to dive deeper into the trends revealed by the report.

The latest State Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTS) report, published Friday November 19th, showed one unifying sign: the Great Resignation is a national trend. Nationwide, workers are searching for better opportunities, and they are not afraid to vote with their feet.

Top takeaways from the November 19th JOLTS report

Hawaii is leading the way in the Great Resignation with a quit rate of 7.1%, which is more than double the current national rate of 3.0%.
Montana has more than 2 job openings per unemployed person, putting substantial bargaining power in job seekers’ hands. The abundance of opportunities available in Montana is encouraging people to leave their jobs for better ones.
Nevada has the lowest gap between its job openings and hires rates, which suggests that time-to-hire is particularly rapid in the state, with employers able to fill vacancies more quickly than elsewhere.
Nebraska has the lowest state jobless rate; it also has more than 3 job openings per unemployed person. The state’s pool of job seekers is small, which is why the city of North Platte, NE is offering people up to $5,000 to move there. Companies in Nebraska are therefore having a harder time filling vacancies.
The hiring process on the east coast is lagging. Hiring rates in Massachusetts, West Virginia, and Maryland have not caught up with their job openings rates in the current labor market. Although Massachusetts and West Virginia have some of the highest job openings rates in the country, ranking in the top 4, they nevertheless have the widest gaps between openings and hires, an indication of slower hiring processes than in the rest of the country.

Allwork.Space reached out to ZipRecruiter’s Lead Economist, Sinem Buber to dive deeper into the trends revealed by the report.

Allwork.Space: With the holidays fast approaching, do you believe quit rates will decrease as workers aim to have more cash for the holidays?

On the contrary!

Businesses are on a hiring spree ahead of the peak holiday season, and they are offering pay increases and handsome cash signing bonuses to solve staffing shortages. Workers are switching jobs in droves to take advantage of the most lucrative offers.

In other words, the quit rate is high not because people are leaving the labor force and taking a pay cut, but because many people can earn more right now by leaving their old jobs and switching to a new company or even industry.

Allwork.Space: One of the trends identified by the report is slow hiring processes in some areas. What can companies do to improve the hiring process and make it faster?

Companies need to do three key things to streamline their hiring processes.

Hire efficient, responsive, and proactive talent acquisition professionals, and empower them to screen candidates, schedule interviews, and push hiring managers to provide feedback and make decisions quickly.
Use time-saving technologies, like best-in-class recruiting software and electronic document signing apps to cut down on delays between one stage of the process and the next.
Recognize that it is a job seeker’s market right now. Employers who hold out for the perfect candidate or who fail to compete on pay, schedule, and benefits will likely end up with nobody. That means employers will have to be more flexible than usual.

Allwork.Space: What are some hiring trends you foresee for 2022?

During the labor shortage of 2021, employers added hiring incentives and subtracted job requirements. They also switched to allowing employees to work remotely. Most of these changes were temporary emergency measures—reactions to the latest COVID surge or staffing shortage.

In 2022, we are likely to see more deliberate, permanent changes to hiring practices. For example, we’ll see more companies shift to a fully remote or hybrid workforce and adopt new scheduling practices to give employees the flexibility they’re demanding.

Allwork.Space: What can cities or states do to attract workers to the area, to prevent Nebraska’s situation from happening on a larger scale?

Thanks to the remote work revolution, workers can increasingly vote with their feet. That means there will be pressure for cities and states to improve the way they tax, govern, and provide services. Well-run places with low living costs, good schools, and attractive public amenities will have an advantage in attracting talent and expanding their tax bases.

Those that struggle to compete will increasingly have to resort to targeted incentives to motivate workers to relocate there, such as the cash bonuses, home-buying allowances, and tax credits we’ve seen cities like Tulsa and Topeka pilot this year.