Has Australia’s ‘great reshuffle’ already occurred?

By Jon Bragg

March 02 2022
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More than half of Australians have made a change to their work arrangements since the start of 2020.

A new survey has found that 51 per cent of workers, or 5.3 million Australians in total, have already made a change to their employment arrangements in the past two years despite looming predictions of a ‘great reshuffle’ or ‘great resignation’.

Since early 2020, this significant proportion of Aussie workers either moved jobs, switched industries, changed careers or reduced their hours, or had undertaken more than one of these changes, according to research commissioned by career coach Kate Richardson.

One in five workers were found to have already changed their careers, moving to both a new job or role and to a new industry since February 2020.

“The Great Resignation. The Great Reshuffle. The Big Quit. Whatever you choose to call it, experts have been predicting its arrival in Australia in the first part of 2022,” commented Ms Richardson.

“Instead of seeing The Great Resignation as a one-off event, we need to see career change as an ongoing trend.”

Younger workers aged 18-34 were the most likely to have changed careers in the past two years, with 22 per cent of respondents in this age group making a change versus 17 per cent of those aged 35-49 and 14 per cent of those aged 50 or above.

Meanwhile, female workers (21 per cent) were also more likely to have made a change in comparison to male workers (16 per cent).

“Given females lost more jobs and hours during the pandemic than males, it’s not surprising that women were more likely to make bolder decisions and change their career,” Ms Richardon said.

Four out of ten workers indicated that they are likely to change their job/role, industry or career within the next year, backing up Ms Richardson’s suggestion that the ‘great resignation’ or ‘great reshuffle’ would be an ongoing phenomenon.

Additionally, 18 per cent of respondents equivalent to about 1.86 million workers in total were found to be considering a career change to both a new job and industry within the next year.

Workers in blue collar industries (24 per cent) were twice as likely as those in white collar industries (12 per cent) to be thinking about changing careers.

“For all the talk of The Great Resignation being the domain of the young and the professional, blue collar workers are also rethinking their career choices,” said Ms Richardson.

“They’re not waiting to be restructured out of a job. They’re recognising that getting on the front foot and looking at new career options is the best way to future proof their working.”

Low-income earners were also found to be considering changing their careers at high rates. 23 per cent workers with a household income below $50,000 said they were considering a change versus 7 per cent of those with an income about $150,000.

Recent research from NAB found that one in five Aussies had changed jobs within the past year and nearly one in four were said to be considering resigning from their current employer.

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