Global Great Resignation looks to continue despite a cooling economy globally, said PwC recently when releasing its 2023 Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey which details the attitudes and behaviours of nearly 54,000 workers in 46 countries and territories.
One in four (26%) employees say it is likely they will change jobs in the next 12 months, up from 19% last year, survey results indicated.
Workers who said they are most likely to change employers include those who feel overworked (44%), struggle to pay the bills every month (38%), and Gen Z (35%), PwC noted.
Purpose, company culture and inclusion also remains key to employee concerns. Among workers who said they are likely to change employers, less than half (47%) said they find their jobs fulfilling compared to 57% of those unlikely to change employers, the firm pointed out.
A cash-strapped workforce
Global Great Resignation isn't the only trend amid a cooling economy. Globally, employees are increasingly feeling cash-strapped as a cooling economy and inflationary challenges continue to impact workforce wallets, according to PwC.
The proportion of the global workforce who said they have money left over at the end of the month has fallen to 38%, down from 47% last year, survey results indicated.
In addition, one in five workers (21%) now work multiple jobs, with 69% doing so because they need additional income, PwC observed.
The share of workers with multiple jobs is higher for Gen Z (30%) and ethnic minorities (28%), the firm added.
The economic squeeze is also driving up pay demands, with the proportion of workers planning to ask for a pay increase jumping from 35% to 42% year on year, PwC said.
Among workers who are struggling financially, that number rises to nearly half (46%), the firm noted.
To deal with global Great Resignation trend, Bhushan Sethi, Strategy&, Principal, PwC US said that companies need to address employees’ needs of higher pay and more meaning from their work.
“Addressing these needs will be critical as leaders seek to transform their workplaces enabling business model reinvention, profitable growth and job creation,” he noted. “A critical part of this transformation agenda will include accessing alternative talent pools through a skills-first hiring approach, to address today's skills and labour shortages. Evaluating and upskilling people based on what they can do in the future, not just what they have demonstrated in the past can deliver sustainable economic, business and societal outcomes.”
Survey highlights
- Those likely to change employers are also eight percentage points less likely to say that they can truly be themselves at work than their counterparts who intend to stay (51% vs. 59%).
- Workers struggling financially are also less able to meet the challenges of the future including the need to develop new skills, and adapt to the rise of AI.
- Compared to workers who can pay their bills comfortably, those who struggle or cannot pay their bills are 12 percentage points less likely to say they are actively seeking out opportunities to develop new skills (62% vs. 50%).
- Similarly, those workers who are more financially secure are more likely to seek feedback at work and use it to improve their performance (57%) than those who are struggling financially (45%).
- More than one-third (37%) of workers doing better financially say AI will improve their productivity versus those workers not doing well financially (24%).
- Those workers doing better financially also think AI will create new job opportunities (24% vs. 19%). They are less likely to think it will change the nature of their work in a negative way (13% vs. 18%).
- Workers who said their job requires specialised skills are more likely to anticipate change ahead.
- More than half (51%) say the skills their job requires will change significantly in the next five years, compared to just 15% for employees who don’t have specialised training.
- Around two-thirds are confident their employer will help them develop the digital, analytical and collaboration skills they will need.
- These numbers fall to below half for those who do not currently work in jobs that require specialist training.
- In a competitive labour market, employers are missing out on valuable talent because of old-fashioned approaches to recruitment and development.
- More than one-third (35%) of workers with specialist skills moderately or strongly agree that they have missed out on work opportunities because they don’t know the right people.
- Meanwhile, more than one-third (35%) of workers say they have skills that are not apparent from their CV or job histories, indicating companies may be overlooking talent within the ranks.
- More than half (52%) of employees globally expect to see some positive impact of AI on their career over the next five years, with nearly a third (31%) saying it’ll increase their productivity/efficiency at work.
- Many workers also view AI as an opportunity to learn new skills (27%).
- The survey also reveals stark demographic disparities in employee attitudes towards AI.
- Younger generations are much more likely to expect AI to impact their careers across all of the surveyed impacts, both positive and negative, whereas a little over one-third (34%) of Baby Boomers think AI will not impact their careers, only 14% of Gen Z and 17% of Millennials agree.
