Have Millennials Made Quitting More Common?

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Quitting is in. More than 3 million Americans quit their job in December 2015, the highest number since 2006, according to data released this week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The quits rate, which measures how many people ended their employment out of everyone who worked each month, reached its highest level in seven years.

Economists are generally pleased when Americans feel comfortable telling their bosses it's not working out. It is a sign of a bustling economy when people don't stay in the same job for long periods of time, because it shows they're confident they can find work elsewhere. But it's possible that an even broader attitude shift is underway. The largest share of workers in the country—millennials—seem to be categorically opposed to spending their lives at one desk.

Last year, people aged-18-34 became the largest segment of the U.S. labor market, according to the Pew Research Center. The millennial workforce is expected to increase even more, Pew said, as college student graduate and new immigrants, who tend to be young, add to the 53.3 million-strong ranks of the group. Lots of them seem to be antsy. A majority of millennials to leave their jobs in the near future, according to a survey of 7,500 working, college-educated professionals born after 1982 in 29 countries released this year by Deloitte. Sixty-six percent hoped to have a different job five years from now or sooner, 44 percent said they would quit within two years, and 25 percent said they'd jump ship this year to start a new job or "do something different." U.S. millennial workers were slightly more loyal than the global population, but not by much. Only 29 percent said they planned to stay at their current organization more than five years. The BLS does not break down the quit rate by age, so it's hard to be sure whether young people are acting on their desire to move on. .......................(more)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-12/have-millennials-made-quitting-more-common

[Oneironaut]

1. Loyalty in the workplace doesn't exist anymore.

You can't treat your workers like disposable cogs and demand that they show your company loyalty. It doesn't work. There's a consciousness now that you can be replaced in a second, or have your job shipped off to another country. There is no job security. There's no point of showing "loyalty" to a company because you're not going to be there long anyways.

[LiberalArkie]

2. You got it. I am afraid that the business world may be finding out that loyalty is a 2 way street.

For years business tried to keep the employees with health care and pensions. They may have to rethink a few things.

[hobbit709]

6. Loyalty is a two way street. Get none from above and you won't get any from below.

All the people I know that quit their jobs recently quit because they found a better paying one.
Why work a shit job for $9/hr when you can get a different shit job for $12.

[Mariana]

13. Friend of mine really believed in that old fashioned stuff

that you can get a job and keep it your whole adult life and then retire with a decent pension. He managed to do it, kind of, for 30 years - the plant got sold several times to different companies, but he managed to keep working at the same place. Last month he got laid off for good. He's supposed to get a pension when he's 65 - 13 years from now. We'll see if that actually happens.

[jwirr]

14. It is a two way street and the business world turned against

workers in 1980 and they have not ended this practice to this day.

And that is exactly what lays at the core of our two way race in the primary this year. Workers vs corporate power.
Bernie vs Hillary. Small donors vs corporate donors.

[GummyBearz]

15. You are right, but there is one thing you left off

Add in the shitty yearly increases that big corporations try to tie to inflation as a way to justify them. I stayed with my first professional employer for 10 years. But the last 5 years I kept getting the same shitty 2% raise (way down from the first 5 years). Then I got an offer from a competitor - 35% raise. Suddenly my employer, who just a month earlier said I was only worth the same old 2% yearly raise, came up with a counter offer of a 40% raise to keep me. I told them to shove it. Because they obviously were dicking me out of a shit ton of money for years.

edit: sorry went off on a bit of a rant - the bottom line is that you pretty much have to leave, or at least threaten to leave, in order to get a decent raise these days

[Galileo126]

3. It's not a "millennial thing"

I'm 50 yrs old, and have rejected many a job offer from the pariahs of the 2008 crash. When corporations get their shit together, and realize that going "on the cheap for the benefit of the stockholders" shouldn't be the best game plan, then I'll apply for that job.

Otherwise, corporations can go to hell. Let them declare bankruptcy.

[FSogol]

4. Probably more of a factor of crappy wages and crappy jobs. n/t

[Cosmocat]

16. Winner, winner, chicken dinner

Its a reflection of the jobs that are out there.

There are a LOT of jobs for young people - working sales, marketing, hospitality ...

Past that, the "gig" economy ...

[Sanity Claws]

5. I hate articles like this

It focuses on the reaction of rational people to an environment that does not value workers. It then implicitly judges them negatively because they adjusted to an environment that doesn't value them.

[GreatGazoo]

7. +1 it is perhaps aimed at business owners (like much of Bloomberg news)

providing them with a nice excuse for why employees don't stay

[Populist_Prole]

10. I think so too

It's an attempt to help bolster corporate bitching about "jobs Americans just won't do" in order to facilitate more lobbying to loosen the labor market via more supply through nefarious means; with the end result; you guessed it: Lower wages ( and higher profits )

[Oneironaut]

9. Yup. It shows a funny irrationality in American culture.

There's an odd culture norm where, even if you have a crappy job and can get a much better one, leaving your current job makes you a "quitter" who is "abandoning your employer who did you a favor by hiring you." That is of course total bull crap - they hired you and only continue to keep you because they need you, and you owe it to yourself to get the best job possible. It's an odd culture norm.

[Mariana]

19. Employers got used to treating people like crap

when jobs were scarce. When more jobs are available, it takes a while before they realize they can't do that so much anymore, that people will say, fuck you, I'm going to work down the road.

My own employer is doing that now, jerking around part-timers who were told when they were hired that they'd be working a particular four hour shift with weekends off. Now the company is telling them they have to work different hours and work on weekends, too. They are students or this is their second job or they have family responsibilities. They need a consistent schedule. Most of them are planning to quit as soon as they can line up another job - which they won't have trouble doing, since there are plenty of equivalent jobs available around here. And it'll suck for everyone when they go, because they are great people who do excellent work.

[TexasBushwhacker]

8. I think part of this is because of the IT/tech industry

There are more millenials in that field and they tend to move around a lot. They change jobs for better pay and more opportunities and the IT/tech industry doesn't seem to look down on job hoppers.

[fullautohotdog]

11. Respect me and I'll respect you... n/t

[Wounded Bear]

12. At least part of this is due to the ACA...

if you can insure your family, you can afford to tell you boss to shove it.

[Eleanors38]

17. Hell, if "millennials" quit at one time it would be a general strike.

Who would complain, then?

[Eleanors38]

18. Bloomberg, et al labor philosophy: My way or the Highway.