N.C. resignation rates ninth highest in the country, according to recent analysis

North Carolina has the ninth highest job resignation rate in the country, according to a recent analysis performed by WalletHub.

Over the last year, the state has had a resignation rate of 3.22 percent and had a resignation rate of 3.60 percent in November. 

WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez said the organization was prompted to perform this analysis as a result of the "Great Resignation," which she defined as millions of Americans quitting their jobs each month due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gonzalez said another factor affecting resignation rates is the desire to get away from high-risk careers, where employees are regularly exposed to COVID-19. 

The pandemic made people realize they could successfully work from home and are now reluctant to return to the office full-time. She said employers who are opposing this are seeing higher resignation rates.

Gonzalez said workers who are considering retirement may be contributing to the high rates. 

"Another factor that has potentially increased job resignation rates is the fact that those who were close to retirement were determined by the pandemic to simply retire early,” she said. 

Camille Campbell, a second-year student at UNC, recently resigned from her restaurant job where she had worked for around a year. Campbell said the pandemic and understaffing issues influenced her decision to resign.

“We were understaffed,” Campbell said. “We were constantly looking for people to work as a host, cook and sometimes servers.”

Campbell said she is not surprised to see North Carolina ranked with the ninth highest job resignation rate across the nation.

"The way that people with lower-paying jobs are treated by the general public and by managers in my experience is not worth the amount that we are paid," she said. 

Diego Caballero, a manager of Bartaco in Chapel Hill, said his restaurant has severely felt the impacts of higher job resignation rates. 

When one employee tests positive, he said it forces other employees to quarantine. In turn, some employees will look elsewhere for work. Caballero said Bartaco has had to adapt to the underemployment issues.

Fortunately for Caballero, the restaurant has been able to shrink capacities while maintaining quality service.

“We’re lucky enough to be a part of a corporation so we can lean on our sister restaurants for support and fly people out from different locations on the east coast when we are in need of staff,” he said. 

Caballero said employees are worried about getting themselves or their family members sick and are hesitant to work in the customer service industry.

“A lot of people are social distancing, they have family members with compromised immune systems,” he said. “They don't want to get their family members sick and so it’s been a real big issue keeping people on staff.”

Gonzalez said that although resignation rates are rising, the economy is not actually struggling. She said the labor market is slowly recovering and that these shifts are normal after a crisis.

“The fact that there is a surge in job postings shows that the economy is on the right track,” she said. “It might just take a little time for the job market to settle into place and for employers and employees to find common ground in terms of work schedule and environment.”

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