We are now two years past the Great Resignation, when tens of millions of workers suddenly left for new opportunities, either because of burnout, the desire for better working conditions or some combination of the two. In the U.S. alone, a record 47.8 million people quit their jobs in search of greener pastures. What began that year stretched well into 2022, with 50.5 million people quitting their jobs, and took on cultural resonance—Beyoncé even wrote a song crowning the trend as a pop culture moment and countless viral TikTok (or #QuitTok) videos were made about it. It seems to be losing steam in 2023—if it’s not dead entirely—as an era of mass layoffs and “sticky” inflation displaces the overheated economy of the pandemic recovery. But Gen Z has other ideas, dreams even.
A survey by PwC, one of the “Big Four” consulting firms that periodically weighs in on all things workplace and future of work-related, found that a quarter of employees globally want to shift jobs in the next 12 months. Gen Z workers, aged between 18 and 26, make up about 35% of those wanting to quit, while millennials (aged 27 to 42) are another 31%. The common reason cited by 44% of the workers considering quitting their jobs is overwork.
