The Great Resignation: Revolutionizing the American Labor Market

It’s still cool, but one morning the sun breaks as Chris van Jura rides around the corner with his trailer. Best Jersey Dog, Promises a happily decorated trolley. Chris opens the hatch, lights the grid lamp, and in twenty minutes his hot dog stand is ready. The first customer logs in. A “Good dog“, Says Van Jura with a big smile on his face.

Van Jura, from New Jersey, has had a successful career in the hospitality industry, most recently as a senior executive at a large Washington hotel chain. However, he set aside his 20-year career and decided to start all over again. “I had a good job, but I never felt safe. A lot of people think during epidemics: Who’s going to take care of me? Treat me like a person, not number one?”

And he is not alone. The United States is experiencing an unprecedented wave of voluntary layoffs: individuals leaving their lives of their own free will. Economists already have a trend Big resignation Baptized. A large number of Americans resigned in April and July this year. That record was broken again in August: 4.2 million people quit their jobs.

Skilled in big technology, worn out health workers, those working in the hospitality sector, from low paid jobs to executive positions: they come from all possible fields and layers of staff and have decided to change course. As the corona recovers from the crisis, a small revolution is taking place in the US labor market.

Three hectares of cannabis

At the same time, unemployment, which now stands at less than 5 percent, is not exceptionally high. So where are all those people? The part where Chris van Jura left: They started their own company. This is because, with the exception of unprecedented voluntary layoffs, not so many new companies have been registered in the United States in the last 1.5 years. More than 7 million Americans fell.

Another large group is shifting to emerging industries. John Laciter resigned as manager of the retail chain for the cannabis industry. Cannabis is now one of the most exciting growth markets in the United States. Laceter: “There is a lot to do here and a lot more to earn. This industry is the magnet of the labor market, all very exciting.”

At Gulda’s cannabis plantation in the state of Maryland, the plants are tall and dense in order. Three hectares of cannabis, next to which is a large laboratory, where the seeds are grown and new products are tested. “Four years ago we started here with five employees. Now we have 165 colleagues and we are growing.”