Most employees want to quit in 2025, but there might not be another Great Resignation

Americans are feeling stuck in their careers and eager to switch employers, but don’t expect another Great Resignation in 2025.

According to Glassdoor’s 2025 Worklife Trends report, nearly two-thirds of professionals report concerns of career stagnation, including 73% of tech workers. Despite widespread career angst, however, quit rates are way down from their Great Resignation peak, and even below pre-pandemic norms, due to softer labor market conditions.

“The desire to quit is there, but the opportunities aren’t,” explains Glassdoor lead economist Daniel Zhao. “That pressure is boiling underneath the surface, and if there comes an opportunity to relieve that pressure—because the job market heats up, and people find opportunities to quit—then that pent up pressure will be released.”

Though the report suggests “a wave of revenge quitting is on the horizon,” Zhao says we’re not likely to see another Great Resignation—or anything close to it—in 2025.

“I think a healthier job market is definitely a possibility for 2025, but the Great Resignation is unlikely to come up again in the short term, because it was driven by a once-in-a-lifetime event—the pandemic,” he explains. “It was a period where workers had the leverage to quit and find a job that pays better or offers a better title or more remote work, and over the last two years, we’ve seen that balance of power shift back toward employers.”

An Employer’s Market is Expected in 2025

In other words, resignation rates aren’t falling because employees are more satisfied but because they have fewer options, and that isn’t expected to change dramatically in the new year, even if demand improves.

According to a recent survey by ZipRecruiter, 76% of employers intend to increase headcounts in 2025, but economists suggest the increase won’t be enough to initiate the kind of hiring frenzy experienced during the pandemic recovery period.

“We started to shift back in the direction of [an] employers’ [market] this year, and I think that shift will likely continue into next year,” suggests Dante DeAntonio, a labor economist for Moody’s Analytics. “I don’t see workers having a ton of leverage in the labor market moving forward.”

DeAntonio explains that with the wild swings in labor market demand caused by the pandemic now behind us other macroeconomic forces are slowing down hiring across the board.

“We’re coming out of a period of exceptionally high interest rates,” he explains. “There were heightened risks of recession at various times throughout the last two years, and I think firms are still more tentative today about the future and what they want their staffing levels to be moving forward.”

DeAntonio adds that the one major unknown going into the New Year is whether the incoming Trump administration makes good on its promise to curb immigration, or pursue mass deportations, which could cause ripple effects across the labor market.

“There’s some uncertainty around immigration with the new administration, and how that might affect the talent pool in sectors like tech, both in terms of existing workers and future streams of workers,” he says. “If you think about construction, agriculture—even tourism, leisure and hospitality—all of those are potentially more in play in terms of the impact of changing immigration policies.”

Some Workers are Taking Matters into Their Own Hands

As the weakening job market offers less career mobility for employees, some are seeking more creative ways of moving their career forward.

For example, U.S. workers are turning to entrepreneurship, self-employment, and freelancing in greater numbers, and more are pursuing a side-gig to explore new opportunities without giving up on the security of a regular paycheck.

According to the Glassdoor study self-employment has been on the rise since the pandemic, with new business applications up 47% since 2019.

“If people are not finding success on the traditional track, then they’re going to look for other ways to find fulfillment in their work, and one way that might happen is self-employment or a side hustle,” explains Zhao. “We are seeing more and more Americans turn to entrepreneurship and self-employment as a means of finding success in a way that isn’t limited to the traditional career ladder.”

Employers are Still Struggling with Skills Gaps

Though the job market is currently working in employers’ favor, the pendulum always swings back, and experts warn them against relying on a weak labor market to keep their top performers from going elsewhere.

“The whole revenge quitting sentiment, I think it’s an opportunity for organizations to see that positively and proactively, and as a wake-up call for organizations to really focus on their culture,” says Betterworks COO Andrea Lagan.

Lagan explains that just because employers aren’t in a financial position to hire, doesn’t mean they’re not struggling with talent needs. She suggests many are still managing skills gaps in their workforce, just on more limited budgets, making upskilling and career development all the more vital.

“There’s a problem in understanding the skills gaps within their organization, and how they best understand what those gaps are and put in place programs or technologies that allow them to close those gaps,” she says. “I think AI is going to be able to play a pretty big role in how they solve that problem.”

Using Technology to Upskill at Scale

As employees look for career advancement opportunities in a more limited job market, and as employers look to improve employee output on a more limited budget, Lagan suggests more will be looking to digital career planning and development solutions.

“AI can pull all that data together and say, ‘these are the skills you’ve developed over the course of the year; these are the skills gaps you have, and this is a development area you should pursue in the coming year in order to achieve your career goals,’” she says. “Pulling all of that together then allows for the organization to assess the skills capabilities within a team, or a department, or across the company.”

Rather than a wave of resignations, Lagan believes 2025 will see a wave of AI adoption, offering career planning tools that give employees more control over their development, while enabling employers to onboard new skills without increasing their staffing levels.

“It’s really important that employees continue to find new things to learn and develop and put [those skills] to good use,” she says, “because if you don’t, you’re going to be left behind. And who wants to be left behind?”