Has the "American Dream" changed in the "Big Resignation" wave of Young Americans "lying flat" or the "American Dream"?

On December 6, local time, a "Taco Bell" chain fast food restaurant in Indiana, USA, hung a sign of "recruitment". According to the survey results of the US Department of Labor, the number of vacant jobs in the United States continues to rise, rising from 10.6 million in September to 11 million in October, and companies continue to face "recruitment difficulties". Courtesy of Visual China

After the Great Depression and the Great Recession, a new word was written into the dictionary. The term "Great Resignation" coined by Anthony Cruz, an associate professor of management at Texas A&M University, quickly resonated in society and became the hot word of the year in the United States in 2021.

In the wave of "great resignation", young Americans have become the absolute main force. For them, the "American Dream" of reciprocal returns through individual struggle has long since changed. Under various pressures, they have a more practical understanding and expectation of the future.

Inflation aside, American wages have actually been falling

The so-called "big resignation" refers to the wave of large-scale voluntary resignations of employees in the United States from the first half of 2021. In April, 4 million people in the United States resigned, twice as many as in the same period last year, setting a record high. In July, August and September, the previous month's record was broken, and by September, 4.4 million people had resigned and 10.4 million jobs had been vacant. This is something that the United States has never experienced in the last 20 years.

The long queues in front of the cashier counters in supermarkets and shopping malls during rush hour, the mountains of goods piled up by logistics companies and ports, and the job advertisements posted at the entrance of stores all confirm the existence of "big resignations". A notice was posted on the window of a donut shop: "We don't have enough people today." If you don't have the patience (waiting), apply. A notice on the closed door of another store read: "Sorry, we don't have employees, no one is working now." Of course, we are not good employers, only paying the minimum wage and not any benefits. But it's all the government's fault. ”

The wave of resignations has plunged the U.S. government into partisanship as always. Republicans have repeatedly accused the federal government of providing unemployment benefits as "high-welfare slackers" and curbing people's willingness to return to the job market. Democrats argue that high childcare costs and fears of COVID-19 are the culprits of the labor shortage because federal unemployment benefits ended by September, but the wave of resignations shows no signs of slowing down.

Business Insider notes that both Democrats and Republicans ignore perhaps the simplest fact: Americans are tired of growing below "standard" wages.

Over the past 50 years, excluding inflation, Americans' wages have actually been declining. In 1969, American wages as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) were 51.6 percent, and then gradually declined, falling to 43.4 percent in 2019. In other words, since the 1960s, American workers have benefited less and less from the country's economic growth. In addition, more and more outsourcing and gig work are making workers' basic rights and interests unprotected. So far, the United States still has no guarantee policy for paid leave, whether it is pregnancy or COVID-19 vaccination, whether employees can take time off depends entirely on the mood of the employer.

For many years, the U.S. labor market has been a buyer's market, and employers have absolute say. However, by the end of September, the U.S. had 75 off-the-job employees for every 100 jobs, and the labor market began to shift toward a seller's market. In order to fill the huge job gap, more and more companies have to improve their salaries. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, average U.S. wages rose 1.5 percent in the third quarter, the highest gain in 20 years. For the first time, job seekers have the upper hand and have greater bargaining power in terms of salary, benefits, working hours, etc.

Young people are the main force of the "great resignation"

"Behind the 'big resignation' is actually the 'big dissatisfaction.'" A Gallup investigation report pointed out that there are deeper reasons for the wave of resignation in addition to income treatment. The pandemic has changed the way we work and the way people think about it. More and more people are beginning to think, what does work mean to life? What do you want from your job?

This may be one of the reasons why active young people have become the main force of "great resignation". According to the survey, 27% of respondents aged 18 to 39 have fired their boss squid in the past year; among young people aged 18 to 25 (i.e. "Generation Z"), this proportion is as high as 54%. When asked why I quit my job, "Work is not good for my mental health" and "I lost my balance at work and in life" were the two most common answers.

Many researchers have mentioned the term "burnout" when analyzing the phenomenon of young people's resignation. According to a survey by youth survey agency Ypulse, 80 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 39 said they felt "physically and mentally exhausted" from their work. On the one hand, the COVID-19 pandemic has made some industries, especially the service sector, more demanding than ever; on the other hand, moving work from the office to home means that there is no clear line between work and life in the eyes of many young people, and employers' expectations of employees to "always be on standby" will also rise. The "digital burnout" brought about by telecommuting is also a challenge for some young people who are just entering the workplace. LinkedIn editor George Anders noted in the survey report that "it is difficult for them to find their place [in social organizations] because they do not go through the normal onboarding, social and training process." "There's also a theory that frontline workers and low-income workers are far more likely to quit their jobs than office white-collar workers with high salaries, while young people have the lowest incomes among workers of all ages."

In a post on the LinkedIn, digital marketing manager Patricia Diaz spoke of the disappointment of the younger generation of society in the United States, providing part of the answer to the current wave of resignations: "As a teenager, we saw two planes crashing into the building on TV; when we entered college, our peers went to war for an unnecessary war; when we graduated, we were saddled with heavy student loan debt; and in the worst recession the country has ever seen, we entered the job market." We've seen innocent people die on social media streams; we've been beaten by (rising) housing prices; and as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year, we're forced to make painful choices between our own health and those we love. We are exhausted. Resign because we have nothing to lose. ”

Some analysts pointed out that in fact, long before the start of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, due to the recession, climate change and other issues, young people in the United States generally felt "burned out".

The meaning of the "American Dream" has undergone a subversive shift

"Behind the 'big resignation' is not that people are reluctant to work. It marks an awakening of thought — a country in which more and more people realize that the American Dream is dead. Kurt Eykenwald, author of "The Disintegration of Ideas" and author of The New York Times, wrote on Twitter.

The term "American Dream" was coined by the writer and historian James Truslow Adams in his book American Epic. According to Adams, the American Dream should "give each person the opportunity to live a better, richer, and more fulfilling life, based on his or her abilities or accomplishments," regardless of his social class or circumstances of his birth. In the eyes of the previous generation of Americans, a stable and well-paid job, a spacious house, a good car, and more than two children were the standard of the American Dream and a sign of success in life.

But in today's generation of young people, the meaning of the "American Dream" has undergone a subversive shift. In 1996, a high school student in a midwestern state said, "Many people from poor backgrounds or in difficulty have reached the peak of their lives through personal efforts... While not everyone can succeed, there are many people who can succeed"; in 2011, in the same survey of high school students in the same state, one student said, "You can work tirelessly, but if you don't have the opportunity or money to continue your studies, you will never have the opportunity to escape your current situation."

Young people's perceptions of wealth have also changed. In 1996, respondents argued that wealth was not a ticket to happiness, and that the lack of wealth even contributed to character building. By 2011, respondents generally believed that wealth made people happy because it brought them material things and made them respected and cared for by their peers.

Researcher Carol Hostett called it "American Dream Version 2.0." "In this version of the American Dream, anyone can go to college if they have the resources, are willing to go into debt, can get scholarships in any way, are willing to accept community college, or come from wealthy families." More pessimistically, young people no longer believe in the "American Dream."

Ekenwald also points out that for young people, work is no longer a way to achieve life goals such as wealth prosperity and personal growth; the greedy culture of American society makes work a mere means of livelihood for the general public. For years, wage incomes have stagnated, health insurance is unaffordable, paid leave is far away, childcare costs are high, and buying a house is even more extravagant. Many young people see that American society has changed little in 40 years — except to make the wealthy richer. "Such a system teaches people to live without it."

Another way of saying this is that young people still believe in the "American Dream," but they no longer use material elements such as houses, cars, and children as a measure of their own value compared to the previous generation. Surveys have shown that for this generation of young people, whether they can pursue their love at work is more important.

California musician Dane Drewes recently quit his finance job to become a full-time musician. Despite his lucrative past jobs, he felt it was time to follow his inner call. "Honestly, I'm tired of dealing with EXCEL all day." In the past, Mr. Drewvis said, uncertainty about the future had prevented him from plunging into music and staying honest in the familiar and stable financial realm; now, he was ready to break out of the safe zone and devote himself to music.

Such examples provide another way for employers who want to retain young people: for "Generation Z" employees, the ideal job should have both meaning and purpose, and how to make them have a "sense of mission" and "accomplishment" for their work is the key to retaining them. As Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn, put it: "The 'big resignation' is not just about the way it works, it's about what it means to work – it's something that employers need to address." ”

Beijing, December 15 (Xinhua) --

China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Hu Wenli Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily