Wyoming Has One of the Highest Job Resignation Rates, But Why?
Wyoming residents are apparently quitting their jobs at an alarming rate recently.
A new study conducted by personal finance website, WalletHub, recently listed "2022’s States With the Highest Job Resignation Rates" and Wyoming ranked in the top, which is definitely not a "good thing". Overall, the Cowboy State rated 9th.
In order to gauge the rate in which Americans are quitting their jobs, WalletHub ranked all fifty states and the District of Columbia, based on two key metrics (shown below with Wyoming's percentage):
- Resignation rate during the latest month: 3.40%
- Resignation rate in the past 12 months: 3.39%
*Data used to create this ranking were obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.*
The study concluded that although the economy has started to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a surge in job openings, with some employers having a difficult time filling all their open positions. As a result, new applicants have a lot of leverage.
So why are so many people leaving jobs in Wyoming? Is it because people are moving or are they just finding better jobs locally in different markets?
According to Iowa State University Professor, John Winters:
The main reason for higher resignations is that more people are leaving previous jobs for new and better ones. The labor market has been quite strong over the past few months and firms are heavily competing for scarce workers. At the same time, we have seen inflation reach its highest rates in four decades. Individual firms and industries respond to this differently. Some can raise wages to keep up with inflation but many are not. Workers will naturally shift toward those offering higher wages and leave those where real wages (wages adjusted for inflation) are falling. Furthermore, if wages for existing workers are stickier than wages for new workers, some workers may need to change employers even in the same industry to get competitive wages. Finally, the economic disruptions during the pandemic gave many workers an opportunity, and sometimes a necessity, to try new things including new jobs
With many jobs giving employees the option to work remotely, it appears residents know exactly what they want. The questions is, will the current job market give in it to them?