By HR Brew Staff
less than 3 min read
Definition:
The Big Stay was a period following the Great Resignation, during which employees, amid a labor-market cooldown, were reluctant to switch jobs.
When did the Big Stay originate?
The job-hopping frenzy in 2021 and 2022 known as the Great Resignation took a turn when companies slowed down hiring and stopped offering inflated salaries. In 2023, a new era emerged: the Big Stay.
Why did this lead to the Big Stay?
Employees, especially in white-collar industries, became reluctant to switch jobs as the labor market cooled, and many companies conducted layoffs. In the years that followed, the Big Stay became a sign that workers were, often begrudgingly, staying in roles because there weren’t other opportunities.
Can you put the Big Stay into context?
“People are less bullish in looking for other opportunities, there’s also just a flood of solid candidates on the market, competition when it comes to these tech jobs,” Joel Kennedy, a senior product designer at Yelp, told HR Brew in 2024.
