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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsIs a new “Great Resignation” underway? Recent U.S. evidence shows more workers seeking new opportunities, alongside employer concerns about talent shortages, burnout and outdated skills. But it does not prove that rising workloads or skills gaps are causing workers to consider leaving, or that a broad new resignation wave has begun. Wanting a better job is also different from actively searching for one—or actually quitting.
Are workers considering job changes at a higher rate?
Gallup’s 2026 analysis says U.S. workers are seeking new opportunities at the highest rate in its series since 2015. Gallup describes that trend alongside employee engagement at a decade low and a job market it characterizes as difficult for workers seeking a move. These findings point to greater interest in new opportunities, not proof that workers are quitting at a matching rate or that a new “Great Resignation” is established.
Gallup’s Q4 2025 survey responses offer clues about what workers want and what keeps them in place:
- Reasons for seeking a job: 69.1% cited better pay or benefits, 29.7% cited more growth or advancement, and 27.6% cited better work-life balance. Respondents could cite reasons; these figures should not be read as exclusive causes.
- Reasons for staying: 43% said they remained in their role primarily because leaving would be too difficult or costly. Gallup also reported that economic concerns were prominent among workers who felt leaving was too costly.
- Wellbeing: Gallup categorized 49% of U.S. workers as struggling and 46% as thriving in its life-evaluation measure. That is a wellbeing indicator, not a measure of resignation intent.
The pattern is not simply “unhappy workers leave.” People may want better opportunities while feeling unable to take the financial risk of changing jobs. And the reported reasons include pay, advancement and work-life balance—not just workload or skills.
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Does workload differ by job?
Yes. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2025 Occupational Requirements Survey describes job requirements and worker discretion, not whether employees feel overloaded or plan to resign. In its summary, released January 16, 2026, 18.5% of workers had a self-paced workload, 53.5% had pause control and 48.3% had work-schedule variability. The BLS states: “The ability to pause work was present for 53.5 percent of workers in 2025.”
These measures help show why workload cannot be treated as a single experience across the workforce. The ability to set one’s pace, pause work or vary one’s schedule is not the same as the amount of work assigned, its intensity, or the stress it creates. BLS occupation-level estimates also vary, so national figures should not be used to rank particular jobs by stress or to infer that workers in jobs with less control are planning to quit.
What do employers say about skills gaps and burnout?
Employer-side concerns suggest that organizations see pressure around staffing and changing skill needs, but they are not a direct measure of workers’ intentions. In WGU’s 2026 Workforce Decoded release, more than 60% of hiring professionals cited talent shortages as a top pressing issue for the next 12 months; 56% cited burnout and 48% cited skills obsolescence. The report drew on an online survey of 3,147 U.S.-based respondents conducted for WGU by Centiment from September 30 through October 15, 2025.
Those figures describe what hiring professionals reported, not the share of all workers who lack skills, feel burned out or intend to leave. A talent shortage may reflect employers’ difficulty finding people with particular capabilities; it does not by itself establish that existing employees have a skills gap. Nor does an employer’s concern about burnout show that burnout caused a worker to consider changing jobs.
What does one sector-specific survey show?
A September 2025 UK Department of Health and Social Care survey provides a bounded example of how skills gaps may be experienced by staff already in a demanding sector. Among adult social care respondents answering about the effects of skills gaps, 47% selected increased workload and pressure, while 33% selected increased stress and risk of burnout. Respondents also selected effects including greater need for supervision and support, reduced job satisfaction, and difficulty adapting to processes or technology.
This is evidence about reported effects among adult social care respondents in the UK—not a workforce-wide estimate for the United States, all UK workers or all occupations. It also does not measure whether respondents planned to leave. It illustrates a possible connection between skills gaps and workload pressure in a specific setting, rather than proving that connection drives job-change intentions more broadly.
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Does the evidence prove workload and skills gaps are driving a new resignation wave?
No. The available findings make the connection plausible to investigate, but they do not directly test whether workload and skills gaps cause workers to consider changing jobs. Gallup measures workers’ interest in opportunities and reasons for seeking or staying; WGU reports hiring professionals’ concerns; BLS describes occupational requirements; and the UK survey records adult social care respondents’ views of skills-gap effects. These are related pieces of evidence, but they measure different populations and outcomes.
“Great Resignation 3.0” is therefore best treated as a question or headline, not an official statistical category or confirmed labor-market event. The strongest supported conclusion is narrower: more U.S. workers are seeking opportunities than at any point in Gallup’s series since 2015, while many face barriers to leaving and employers report staffing, burnout and skills concerns. The evidence does not establish that workload and skills gaps are the cause of a broad new wave of quits.
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