Despite a strong jobs report for November, the job market vibe is mixed. The number of Americans reporting they want a new job is at a 10-year high, but many feel they have nowhere to go.
Gallup is calling it the “Great Detachment,” years after the “Great Resignation” took hold. In workplaces around America, employees feel stuck.
“People are aware that it’s harder to find a job than it was a few years ago, and that if they have a job, their layoff risks are actually very low, so it’s worth holding tight, not worth jumping ship,” said Guy Berger, director of economic research at Burning Glass Institute. “Simultaneously with that, I think there’s some evidence people are much more frustrated in their current jobs.”
According to a recent Gallup poll, more than half of U.S. workers say they are watching for or actively seeking a new job, a 10-year high. Meanwhile, the share of people who report being “extremely satisfied” with their work is 18%, a 10-year low.
“I think until hiring starts picking up a little bit, which may happen next year, or at least stops falling, I think people are going to feel a little like, ‘I want to get out, I want to find something else, but I can’t,’” Berger said.
While employers may be relieved the age of high turnover is over, Gallup warns this period of detachment can come with productivity concerns and future talent loss. They say employees are more likely to resist or be indifferent to organizational changes.
An interesting thing happened when the “Great Resignation” kicked off. The connection employees felt to their workplace’s mission or purpose plunged, and there’s still no sign of recovery, Gallup data shows. Less than half of employees say they even know what’s expected of them at work. But still, employees are hanging on.
“There’s probably some chunk of people that are like, ‘You know what? My pay has gone up. I’m very happy at my job. I’m at low risk of layoffs … They might say this is a really good labor market,” Berger said. “And then you have people in the middle that have a job, they’re at low risk of being laid off, but might want something different. And there’s not a lot of stuff out there. And for them, this is a good, but not great, job market.”
“And that’s probably the biggest chunk of people out there. They’re not worried, but they would like something else, and there’s not something out there, and maybe they’re growing increasingly frustrated. As long as layoffs don’t pick up, they’re in a decent, cushy spot,” he continued.
And then there are people who are out of the labor force. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate is 4.2%. It’s historically on the lower side, though much higher than a year ago.
“The mix of unemployment has gotten a little worse,” Berger explained. “We have more people that are permanently laid off than we did before, and fewer people that are quitters.”
Berger said for those who can’t find a job, the market is more reminiscent of the early 2010s, when the Great Recession still had a grasp on the economy.
“And I think in some senses, maybe more isolating, because these people that are unfortunate enough to have been laid off and are having trouble getting hired, they keep hearing, ‘Oh, this is a good labor market, that employment rates are low, etc,’ and their experience is quite different,” Berger said.
