The Great Resignation and the Business of Law

• Author: Daniel S. Wittenberg
• Pages: 26-27

Published in Litigation News Volume 47, Number 2, Winter 2022. © 20 22 by the American Bar A ssociation. Repro duced with permissio n. All rights reser ved. This informati on or any portion the reof may not be copie d or disseminated in any

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ecord numbers of Americans are quitting their

jobs. In September 2021 alone, roughly 3 percent

of all workers in the United States walked off the

job. The number of resignations has now exceeded

pre-pandemic highs for six straight months. The

“Big Quit” is on and hitting our nation.

By the Numbe rs

According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics

(BLS) in September, more than 4.4 million Americans quit

their jobs. About 4.3 million people quit their jobs in August

(2.9 percent of the workforce) and 4 million in July. Between

April and August 2021, workers turned in resignations at a

rate 60 percent higher than the same time frame in the pre-

ceding year and 12 percent higher than in 2019, “when the

job market had been the hottest it had been in almost 50

years,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The 2021 Work Trend Index report, which canvassed

more than 30,000 people in 31 countries, found that more

than 40 percent of the global workforce is considering leav-

ing their current employer this year and 46 percent is plan-

ning to make a major pivot or career transition. That number

jumps to 54 percent when Gen Z is considered alone. Gallup

found that 48 percent of employees are actively searching for

new opportunities. The Harvard Business Review reported

that employees between the ages of 30 and 45 saw the larg-

est jump in resignation rates with an average of more than 20

percent between 2020 and 2021.

Among the industries hit the hardest, professional services

placed third out of eleven identied sectors. According to the

BLS, approximately 706,000 professional service workers quit

in September and 2.1 million quit in the third quarter of 2021.

By contrast, the number of people who were laid off or

red in September was unchanged at 1.4 million, measur-

ing 0.9 percent of workers. Between September 2020 and

September 2021, U.S. employers added 73.3 million workers,

while 67.7 million people have left or lost their jobs. That

means the economy has added 5.6 million positions. The

report from the BLS builds out a portrait of the labor market,

with historic levels of people leaving jobs and a near-record

number of job openings, showing the leverage workers have

in the new economy.

The Great Resignation and the

Business of Law

By Daniel S. Witte nberg, Litigation News Asso ciate Editor

© Getty Image s

26 | LITIGATION SECTI ON

BUSINESS OF LAW