THE GREAT RESIGNATION

An article by Denise Ruggiero

The great resignation
Resignation in italy
The new occupations

THE GREAT RESIGNATION

As of 2021 a wave of resignations is sweeping the US, data reported by the US Department of Labour indicate a record 4.6 million Americans resigned in August 2021. Data recently confirmed by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, indicates a resignation number of 4.5 million and an unemployment number of 11.5 million in March.

The last two years have exacerbated a phenomenon that began 12 years ago and became explicit with the onset of the pandemic. The factors that have brought about changes in the labour reality are retirement, relocation, redefinition, reshuffling and ,hostility.

The pandemic has generated a change of mentality at work, for workers personal needs have greater weight. Reconsiderations about the professional role and career have arisen, in some cases deciding to leave the occupation held.

However, workers have not left the labour market entirely, but the market is showing a greater variety in employment paths. In particular, there is a re-shuffling of jobs, with relocations from sectors hit hard by pandemic pressure to sectors that provide a better work-life balance.

In America, 30% of women have changed jobs in the last two years in order to improve employment conditions and get higher pay. Collaterally, 1 million women have left the workforce, also due to family reasons.

The share of Americans over 65 years of age looking for a new job or unemployed is 10% lower than in the previous two years. The reason for this decline is related to early retirement, which is due to several reasons: the worry of returning to work and contracting the virus, and a change of view on one’s work, with a re-examination of personal and professional priorities.

The Great Resignation can therefore be translated as the result of a set of occupational and life choices determined by various factors, which emerged even more with the pandemic and which gave rise to increasingly unexpected and personal motivations and decisions on the part of workers.

RESIGNATION IN ITALY

In 2021, the number of dismissed workers was 205,000 higher than in 2019. The increase in the number of resignations was caused by the freezing of the labour market in 2020, characterised by a year-long layoff freeze and falling labour demand.

Another problem exacerbated by the pandemic crisis has been the mismatch in some sectors, notably tourism and hotels, where it is difficult to find labour because the supply does not satisfy workers, who are increasingly looking for guarantees and flexibility.

With the pandemic came a revolutionary dynamic for the system, a new philosophical approach to work engagement. It is based on ‘YOLO’ the acronym for ‘Uou only live once’, work considered as a part of life and not a dominant part of existence. It changes the value system of the worker who gives more priority to private life, which he is no longer willing to give up for lack of time.

The Microsoft survey confirmed the change taking place, 53% of professionals prioritise health and personal well-being. The lack of these conditions is for 18% of respondents the reason for resignation, and 52% of workers said they wanted to change companies because they were not in line with their needs.

Another relevant factor for job seekers is job flexibility. Workers do not want to return to the pre-pandemic pace and the most attentive companies offer flexible solutions such as hybrid work, partly in the company and partly from home or another location. But in this respect, the Microsoft study points to a worrying fact: 54% of hybrid workers say they experience a sense of isolation. It is therefore necessary to create new corporate welfare models that make workers feel close even if they are far away.

Given the current situation, it is crucial for companies to renew and reinvent themselves if they want to retain human capital.

THE NEW OCCUPATIONS

The changing labour market has led to a digital transaction, in which the use of technology plays a central role. The skills required are increasingly complex and transversal, as the professions of the future will be more technical and specialised.

Ongoing digitisation, accelerated by the pandemic, has increased the demand for personnel with digital skills. Sectors in which employment is expected to grow over the next five years are IT, telecommunications and communications. In these sectors, work can easily be done remotely, without downtime.

Some of the digital professionals are: the digital transition manager who deals with the development within companies of business models based on the application of new digital technologies; the project manager who implements a company project by planning the different phases from the beginning to the end of the project; the e-commerce manager operating in online sales with digital marketing and project management skills; the cloud architect who deals with the architecture of information systems that facilitate information management and sharing processes; and the data scientist who analyses and organises a large amount of data that is fundamental for business decisions.

In addition to the digital transition, another transition is underway, the environmental one. The market has grasped the economic possibilities of green and has started to take out loans to acquire specialised green personnel. The skills in demand are related to sustainability, energy saving, circular economy and environmental marketing.

Some of the jobs in demand in the green job are sustainable energy expert, energy engineer, sustainability manager, green project finance, environmental marketer and green investment consultant.

TAG: greatresignation#resognations#digitaltransition#environmentaltransition#newjobs

Denise Ruggiero