It is still chilly, but a morning sun breaks through as Chris Van Jura comes around the corner with his trailer. The Best Jersey Dog, promises the cheerfully decorated trolley. Chris flips open the hatch, lights the griddle and within twenty minutes his hot dog stand is ready. The first customer logs in. For a “darn good dog“, says Van Jura with a big smile on his face.
Van Jura of New Jersey had a successful career in the hospitality industry, most recently a senior management position at a major Washington hotel chain. However, he decided to put his 20-year career aside and start all over again. “I had a great job, but I never felt secure. During the pandemic, many people have thought, who is going to take care of me? Treat me like a person, not a number?”
And he’s not alone. America is experiencing an unprecedented wave of voluntary layoffs: people who of their own accord are leaving their careers. Economists already have the trend The Great Resignation baptized. A record number of Americans resigned in April and July of this year. Those records were broken again in August: 4.2 percent of the working population quit.
Talented people in big tech, worn-out healthcare workers, waiters in the hospitality industry, from low-paid work to management positions: they come from all sectors and layers of the workforce and have decided to change course. In the rebound from the corona crisis, the American labor market is going through a small revolution.
Three hectares of cannabis
At the same time, unemployment, now just below 5 percent, is not exceptionally high. So where are all those people? Partly where Chris Van Jura left off: they started their own company. Because in addition to the unprecedented number of voluntary layoffs, there have never been so many new companies registered in America as in the past 1.5 years. More than 7 million Americans took the plunge.
Another large group is making the switch to emerging industries. Jon Lassiter gave up his position in the management of a retail chain for the cannabis industry. Cannabis is one of the most spectacular growth markets in America right now. Lassiter: “There is more to do and more to earn here, this industry is the magnet of the labor market, all very exciting.”
On the cannabis plantation of the company Culta in the state of Maryland, the plants are tall and rows thick. Three hectares of cannabis, next to a large laboratory where the seeds are grown and new products are tested. “Four years ago we started here with five employees on the ground, now we have 165 colleagues, and we are growing.”
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