UK 
United States
New data has revealed that over half of UK employees (54%) are considering quitting over poor pay. The research, which was commissioned by HireVue for its latest Candidates Experience Report, also found that just under a under a quarter of employees are planning to leave within the next six months.
The research comes against the backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis, which has seen inflation and prices soar, and workers’ wage packets squeezed hard as a result. As Grapevine Leaders has previously reported, businesses are also facing a co-existing “cost-of-working” crisis, with alarming figures from the Federation of Small Businesses suggesting that half a million UK small businesses are at risk of going bust.
Workers are increasingly asking for pay rises to offset the soaring cost-of-living – but with inflation now at 9%, many employers are struggling to meet their employees’ needs in this department. This, combined with the hot labour market, is causing significant problems for business leaders. The latest figures from the CIPD show that 45% of companies are finding it tough to hire the talent they need, and while the most popular response to this has been to raise pay (44%), employers are reaching a limit in how far they can go with this; only 27% anticipate raising it any further to fill hard-to-fill vacancies.
Increasingly, employers are looking at other means of recruiting and retaining talent – the CIPD figures show that 39% have focused on upskilling staff, whereas 38% have advertised more roles as flexible. However, with energy bills set to rise again in the autumn, and economists warning that the worst is still to come with regard to inflation, many households will be looking at ways of increasing their income. Moving to a better paid job is the most obvious route to this – however, if the job market begins to slow down, this may not be as attractive an option as it is at present.
