The Great Resignation

What is the Great Resignation?

The Great Resignation was the sustained wave of voluntary US resignations that began in early 2021 and ran through most of 2022. Organizational psychologist Anthony Klotz coined the phrase in May 2021, before the wave peaked.

The scale was genuinely unusual. SHRM analysis of the quits data records roughly 47.8 million US resignations in 2021, with a single-month record near 4.5 million that November.

Why did the Great Resignation Happen?

There was no single cause. Moves deferred during 2020 released at the same moment that job openings outnumbered available workers, which handed employees unusual leverage.

• Resignations postponed during 2020 landing all at once
• Record job openings that made switching employers low-risk
• Wage competition concentrated in hospitality, retail, and healthcare
• Burnout in frontline and clinical roles after two years of surge staffing
• A broad reassessment of commute, flexibility, and care responsibilities

Gallup argued the trend was better described as the Great Discontent, since the driver was dissatisfaction with the job rather than a wish to leave the workforce.

Was it Actually a New Trend?

Not entirely. Harvard Business Review showed quit rates had been climbing since roughly 2009, meaning the pandemic accelerated an existing curve rather than creating one.

That earlier climb was slower and less visible, which is why it took a single dramatic year to give the pattern a name people actually noticed.

A follow-up HBR analysis reframed the period as a Great Exploration, with workers moving between industries and roles rather than exiting employment altogether.

That framing matters for planning purposes, since a workforce that is exploring new industries behaves differently than one that is leaving work entirely, and it calls for a different retention response.

Is the Great Resignation Over?

Yes. The quits rate fell back below its earlier baseline, and SHRM declared the period closed as hiring cooled and worker leverage narrowed.

What did not reverse is the expectation set. Pay transparency, schedule flexibility, and faster hiring cycles outlasted the data that produced them.

What Did it Change for HR?

The most durable shift was measurement. Teams that could not answer basic questions about who was leaving and when discovered that gap under real pressure.

• Retention became a tracked metric rather than an annual review topic
• Stay interviews spread as a complement to exit interviews
• First-90-day attrition became the leading indicator most teams now watch
• Internal mobility moved from a nice-to-have to a core retention lever

HR Cloud covers the operational takeaways in lessons for managers from the Great Resignation and the prevention side in engaging your employees to avoid the Great Resignation. For benchmarks, see what counts as a good turnover rate and the job turnover definition.

Much of that wave started in the first 90 days. HR Cloud onboarding software structures that window so new hires reach productivity before they reconsider, and retention strategies cover the rest of the tenure curve.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When did the Great Resignation start and end?

A: It began in spring 2021, peaked in November 2021 at roughly 4.5 million monthly quits, and was effectively over by 2023 once the quits rate fell back below pre-pandemic levels.

Q: How many people quit during the Great Resignation?

A: About 47.8 million US workers resigned in 2021, with nearly 57 million quitting between January 2021 and February 2022.

Q: Which industries were hit hardest?

A: Hospitality, retail, healthcare, and construction saw the highest quit rates, driven by wage competition and burnout in frontline roles.

Q: Did remote work cause the Great Resignation?

A: It contributed but did not cause it. Quit rates were highest in frontline sectors where remote work was never an option, which points to pay and conditions as stronger drivers.

Q: Could it happen again?

A: A similar wave needs the same combination of record openings and low unemployment. The underlying dissatisfaction never fully cleared, so labor market tightening remains the trigger to watch.