Is ‘The Great Resignation’ Real? An Analysis of Salary Increases and Turnover | Aon

There continues to be an influx of reports and articles about the Great Resignation — an ongoing trend of workers leaving their jobs for new opportunities. At the time of this writing, if you conduct a Google search on the phrase Great Resignation 2021, you will yield a staggering 264 million results. And while the great resignation is a real concern for many firms, some question whether it is more hype than reality. Using new data from its Salary Increase and Turnover Survey and publicly available data, Aon examined trends to see which industries and geographies have been most affected by employee turnover during the pandemic. One insight from the report is that, in looking at turnover from June 2019 to June 2021, “turnover is more robust in certain industries that remained strong or grew during the pandemic, including life sciences and manufacturing. In these industries, employees were more likely to have abundant job opportunities. Other industries like media and entertainment saw a decline in turnover over the two-year period.” And while these results are likely to shift as firms return workers to the office, it reinforces how broader workforce trends may manifest differently when data are segmented. Regardless, firms have an opportunity to reevaluate and adjust their employer value proposition to align with the shifting needs and preferences of the workforce.