Kentucky has one of the highest job resignation rates in US. What could be contributing

Meredith Howard
·2 min read
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Kentucky ranked in the top 10 states in the nation for high job resignation rates in recent months, according to a Jan. 20 article from financial website WalletHub.

The commonwealth took the 8th-place spot, beneath Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Louisiana, Delaware, West Virginia and Tennessee.

To calculate the rating, WalletHub used the resignation rate for November (double-weighted) and the resignation rate from December 2021 to November 2022. Kentucky’s job resignation rate was 2.9% for November and 3.59% from December 2021 to November 2022.

Here’s how the rest of the country compared:

Source: WalletHub

WalletHub used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to create the ranking.

Kentucky had the fourth-highest resignation rate from December 2021 to November 2022, behind only Alaska, Georgia and Wyoming.

Patty Dahm, assistant professor of management at the University of Kansas School of Business, told WalletHub burnout has been one of the main factors influencing higher resignation rates.

“Having survived the COVID pandemic, which drastically changed the way that people work, many workers are burned out,” Dahm said. “Amidst new ways of working, parents in particular faced increased demands at home as well. Quite simply, people are tired.”

Other common reasons for resignation include low pay, lack of opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected at work, according to Zhike Lei, a professor at Pepperdine University.

“Without understanding what their employees are running from and what they might gravitate to, company leaders are not only reinforcing the Great Resignation when a record number of employees are quitting or thinking about doing so but also engendering the ‘dysfunctional retention’ of reluctant talents who may eventually leave,” Lei told WalletHub.

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Kentucky’s statewide unemployment rate rose to 4% in November 2022.
Kentucky’s statewide unemployment rate rose to 4% in November 2022.

Unemployment rates

Alongside relatively high job resignation rates, Kentucky had a slightly higher unemployment rate than the U.S. as a whole in December. The commonwealth’s unemployment rate was 4%, while the nation’s was 3.5%.

Lexington-Fayette’s unemployment rate was 3.1% in November, the most recent month for which data are available, down slightly from 3.3% in October.

Across the U.S., significant job gains have recently been seen in the industries of leisure and hospitality, health care, construction and social assistance, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Average hourly wages for U.S. employees on nonfarm, private payrolls rose by nine cents to $32.82 in December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, while the average work week declined by 0.1 hour to 34.3 hours.

Here’s how much a Lexington resident needs to make to rent a 2-bedroom in the city

Here’s where to apply to living wage jobs with few requirements in the Lexington area

Do you have a question about the job market in Kentucky for our service journalism team? We’d like to hear from you. Fill out our Know Your Kentucky form or email ask@herald-leader.com.