“Here comes the Great Resignation,” reads one headline; “Millions of Aussies predicted to leave jobs” reads another.
In fact:
there is no evidence of such a phenomenon here
if there was, it would be no bad thing
Australia’s resignation rate has fallen to an all-time low.
The term was coined in late 2020 by Texas A&M University’s Anthony Klotz in response to two developments he said had collided like a perfect storm: growing quit rates and the burnout and rethinking of work-life balance that followed COVID.
Over much of 2021, Klotz’s predictions appear to be borne out in the US, with the monthly quit rate climbing from about 2.4% in 2019 to 2.9% in August – the highest rate ever recorded.
And there’s little to suggest the trend will come to a stop there any time soon.
Writing in the New York Times, Nobel Prizewinning economist Paul Krugman suggests America is witnessing a new form of worker revolt in the wake of years of substandard conditions. Workers are using growing job openings to look for better or less demanding jobs, or are simply retiring early.
In Australia, resignation rates are falling
Data collected each year by the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggests that in the 12 months to February 2021 almost 1.1 million Australians left their jobs.
That’s not unusual. In most years more than a million Australians leave their jobs.
Leaving and changing jobs is a sign of a healthy, well-functioning labour market.
If Australia has had a problem, it is with fewer and fewer quitting, something Treasury officials have identified as a contributor to low growth in both wages and productivity.
In the year to February 2021 the proportion of Australian workers switching jobs fell to an all-time low: 7.6% of employed Australians changed jobs that year, down from a peak of 19.5% in 1988-89.
