Great Resignation

Coined by professor of management Anthony Klotz in May 2021. Its coining was influenced by the precedent of Great Recession (which was modeled after Great Depression).

the Great Resignation

1. (economics) An economic trend from 2021 to 2023 in which many employees voluntarily resigned from their jobs en masse and job-hopping was common.

   Synonyms: Big Quit, Great Reshuffle

   • 2021 November 5, Paul Krugman, “Wonking Out: Is the Great Resignation a Great Rethink?”, in New York Times‎^[1] (subscriber-only newsletter):

     On the other hand, the Great Resignation — the emergence of what look like labor shortages even though employment is still five million below its prepandemic level, and even further below its previous trend — remains somewhat mysterious.

   • 2021 December 8, Derek Thompson, “Three Myths of the Great Resignation”, in The Atlantic‎^[2]:

     In fact, accommodation and food services, which has been hardest hit by the Great Resignation, has also created one out of every three net new jobs in 2021. Does that make any sense? Only if you think about this as a job-switching revolution.

   • 2022 August 20, John Perry, quotee, “The great resignation: A lifestyle choice or an effect of burnout?”, in The Irish Times, Dublin, page 9:

     There certainly is a ‘great resignation’ but we don't know if people are throwing in the towel because they are burnt out or because they are proactively taking charge. The truth is it's probably a mix of both. There are positive resignations and negative ones.

   • 2022 December 4, Shirley Leung, “Great Resignation? No, it's the ‘Great Rethink’”, in Boston Globe, page R29:

     His [Ranjay Gulati’s] research on how companies energize employees is even more vital during this era of the so-called Great Resignation.

   • 2025 November 17, Michael Sasso, “The Job Market Is Heating Up — for Jobs That People Usually Don't Want. Applications are up and turnover is down for jobs with low pay and tough working conditions”, in Bloomberg News‎^[3]:

     The job-hopping days of the Covid-19 era, dubbed the Great Resignation, have given way to the so-called “low hire, low fire” economy. However, a recent rash of layoff announcements suggest companies have lost their fear of firing. While overall the jobless rate remained fairly low at 4.3% in August — the latest data available — those out of work are lingering in unemployment for longer. Almost 26% of unemployed workers that month had been out of work for more than half a year, one of the highest shares in a decade, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.