- Professor Anthony Klotz has been credited with coining the term "Great Resignation."
- In an interview with the FT, he predicted quit rates would remain high for another two to three years.
- January marked the eighth straight month in which more than 4 million Americans quit their jobs.
The psychologist who foresaw the "Great Resignation" has predicted that people will continue quitting their jobs at above-average rates for the next two to three years.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Professor Anthony Klotz suggested the trend would continue because people were still "sorting out their lives" after two years in a global pandemic.
Klotz, a professor of business administration at May Business School at Texas A&M University, has a stated interest in researching the different ways employees resign. He's believed to have coined the term Great Resignation in February 2021, in an interview with a Bloomberg reporter.
In April 2021, nearly 4 million Americans quit their jobs, a 20-year record at the time. January 2022 marked the eighth straight month that monthly job quits exceeded 4 million.
According to the FT, in his interview with the newspaper, published Sunday, Klotz pointed to marked changes in the workplace as employers tested new ways of working, and the fact that quitting could be contagious, as things that could "continue to keep the labor market somewhat unsettled for a while."
He added: "I'm an organizational psychologist, not an economist, so I have no business making labor market predictions. And if I was an economist, I'd be annoyed at me for doing so."
In an interview with Insider in October 2021, Klotz said: "From organizational research, we know that when human beings come into contact with death and illness in their lives, it causes them to take a step back and ask existential questions. Like, what gives me purpose and happiness in life, and does that match up with how I'm spending my right now? So, in many cases, those reflections will lead to life pivots."