3 in 10 workers say they plan to quit their jobs this year, new survey shows

Nearly 3 in 10 American workers said they planned to quit their jobs by the end of the year, according to a recent online survey by Resume Builder.

Among 1,000 full-time employees surveyed in July, 28% said they were somewhat or highly likely to quit their job by the end of the year, with percentages being highest among workers under age 35, according to Resume Builder.

Of respondents between the ages of 18 to 24, 37% said they were somewhat or highly likely to quit their jobs this year. Among 25-to-34-year-olds, 35% said they were likely to quit.

"A lot of these people who are looking are earlier in their career," said Stacie Haller, Resume Builder’s chief career adviser. "The way to get a significant increase to your pay is changing your job."

Survey respondents cited pay — 56% — as the biggest reason behind their likelihood of quitting their jobs. In second and third place were desire for better benefits — 44% — and stress levels on the job, 43%.

Full-time workers in the service industry were most likely — 35% — to consider quitting their jobs this year, followed by finance and technology workers, both at 34%.

"A decade ago, you had to look for a job maybe an hour from your house," she said. "Now you can look anywhere around the country."

Haller believes that going forward a larger share of workers will continuously be looking for other opportunities considering the trend toward remote work post-pandemic.

"It was remote work that kicked this whole thing off," Haller said. "People are more open to looking for work when they’re not happy because there could be more possibilities for them now."

At the national level, the rate at which workers quit has eased since the heyday of the Great Resignation of 2021 and 2022.

The country’s quit rate was 2.1% in June, with 3.3 million workers leaving their job. At its peak, the nation’s quit rate was a record 3% with 4.5 million Americans leaving their job in November 2021.

Job hopping is an effective way of increasing wages for many careers, said Nicole Craveiro, chief executive and owner of CraveHRO, a Smithtown HR consultancy firm.

"Before I started my business, I had left three jobs within a year," said Craveiro, who started her business three years ago. "That wasn’t to say I was trying to be a job hopper."

For various reasons, Craveiro said she wasn’t finding a good fit with the employers she had worked for during that year. At the same time, going from employer to employer in such a short span had a major impact on the wages she was offered.

"I went from $75,000, to $90,000, then to $110,000 a year in the span of a couple of months," she said.

Some local employers, like Anthony Buonaspina, founder and chief executive of LI Tech Advisors in Babylon, said the idea of a second Great Resignation this year felt like an opportunity. 

"I have had very little if any turnover over the last 7 or 8 years," said Buonaspina, who employs 10 workers full time at his IT managed services business. "Whether or not 28% of employees are looking to leave their job, I look at it as a resource to hire."

Buonaspina said he'd tried to make his workplace as open to employee feedback as possible to keep staff engaged. Additionally, the company is looking at implementing profit-sharing later this year and has operated remotely since the pandemic, a move that has made recruitment and retention easier. 

"It doesn’t matter where you are in the world anymore. That is the future," he said.

Although her firm is proactive when it comes to retention, turnover is always a concern, said Liz Uzzo, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Melville-based H2M architects + engineers.

"Retention is always top of mind," Uzzo said. "Making sure we’re making the right hires and making sure we’re developing our people, so they have opportunities."

Uzzo said investment in employee trainings and mentorships were an important tool in making employees feel connected to the organization and keeping them. For younger workers who may be fresh out of college, those efforts are pivotal in keeping them from jumping from job to job. 

"I’m still worried about turnover. You want to keep your key people and your employees engaged," Uzzo said. "There a huge dollar amount associated with someone leaving an organization."