Nearly half of Americans plan to quit their jobs in the next year, and Gen Z is likely to be driving those mass quits, according to a new report from Bankrate.
According to the report released Monday, 48% of Americans said they were likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months. Generation Z, born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, was particularly likely to plan to quit their jobs in the next year, with 39% saying they planned to leave their job this year. That compares to just 25% of workers overall.
At the same time, only 29, 19 and 11 percent of millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers, respectively, said the same.
Bankrate commissioned YouGov to conduct the online survey, which polled a total of 2,326 U.S. adults, 1,124 of whom are either working full-time or currently looking for full-time work. The survey was conducted between July 23 and 25, 2024.
Mark Hamrick, Bankrate’s senior economic analyst, said it’s not yet clear whether the job market and employers will be able to meet the needs of those looking for new jobs with higher pay or more flexible work arrangements.
“This is not the booming labor market that coincided with the reopening of the economy a few years ago,” Hamrick said in the report. “This is more in line with what we experienced before the pandemic.”
The job market has cooled since the Federal Reserve raised interest rates, particularly in sectors tied to the housing market, Hamrick said.
“If we see a Fed easing trend going forward, hopefully avoiding a near-term recession, these sectors should see some revitalization that will translate into opportunities,” he added.
(Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Many workers, about 43% of Bankrate’s sample, also plan to ask for a raise in the coming year. This trend is more common among younger generations, although workers are generally more concerned about job security today than they were two years ago.
At the same time, about three in ten workers said they were more worried about their job security since interest rates began rising in March 2022, while 16% said they were less worried. Overall, 70% of workers agreed that they felt some level of worry about their job security.
In the latest jobs report from July, the unemployment rate rose to 4.3 percent and employers reportedly added only 114,000 jobs.
Given the current job outlook, Bankrate’s new report may reflect a desire among Gen Z and other workers to leave their jobs, but few of them may actually make the jump, said Alex Beene, a professor of financial education at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
“Saying you’re going to quit your job is a lot easier than actually quitting it,” Beene said. Newsweek“It’s easy to understand why many Gen Zers, as well as other generations, are considering leaving their employers: feeling overworked, underpaid given the inflated prices we’re seeing, and a desire for additional benefits, such as time off and working from home, that were the norm during the pandemic but are quickly disappearing.”
While the hot job market of recent years has been helpful during the “Great Resignation” of 2022, the tide is turning and employees may not have as many options.
“That doesn’t mean people should stay in a job they don’t like,” Beene added. “However, it’s becoming increasingly important to have a plan of action when you exit, but the days of being easy to change jobs may be coming to an end.”
