Great Resignation: Not So Much in Connecticut

It has been called the Great Resignation – the rapidly increasing number of people who have opted to leave their jobs during the past three years of a global pandemic as the nature of the workplace and the work-life balance has shifted dramatically for individuals and employers.

New data reveals that while the Great Resignation is sweeping the nation, in Connecticut, not so much.

Connecticut’s job resignation rate was the sixth lowest in the U.S. joining Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, D.C., and Pennsylvania as the states where the Great Resignation rates were lowest.  On the other end of the spectrum, the states with the highest job resignation rates were Kentucky, Georgia, Montana, Alaska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, West Virginia and Wyoming.

The analysis, by the financial services website WalletHub, points out that “the incentives available from changing jobs, as well as a desire to get away from careers impacted most by COVID-19, are two big factors” driving the Great Resignation. 

“The main factor behind the increased quit rates is simply the red-hot labor market. The numbers of job openings are at record levels. The high resignation levels are not people leaving the workforce. They are from people leaving to get better jobs elsewhere since it is so much easier to find a new job than it ever has been before,” explains Matthew Bidwell of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

According to the data, the resignation rate in Connecticut last month was 2.10% and during the past 12 months was 2.18%.  Data used to create the ranking were obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The latest month data was double-weighted for the overall rankings.

“A scarcity of workers is a problem, but perhaps employers could use the occasion to rethink their expectations about work, to consider more carefully the needs of employees and how they can meet them. this could be a win-win situation, even with unions, if employers would consider their workforce not as interchangeable commodities but as unique individuals with skills and talents they can benefit from, given conditions that recognize their value and provide them with respect and voice,” explains Lotte Bailyn of the MIT Sloan School of Management.

“The pandemic has shown that work can be done differently, in ways no one would have believed. Again, this is the possibility of a win-win – often with a hybrid arrangement – but it takes some imagination and creativity in the design of work.”

Around 100 million Americans left their jobs for greener pastures from 2021 to the end of 2022, according to published reports.  Experts disagree as to whether the Great Resignation will wind down during 2023 or will continue at nearly the same rate.  Public opinion surveys indicate that as many as almost two-thirds of workers say they’ll consider leaving their current job at some point during this year. Economic observers note that to attract talent in a perennially tight labor market, many employers have introduced flexible work arrangements, increased wages or revamped their benefits – all of which is making leaving a current job to pursue a new position particularly attractive.