Good news for job seekers; many economic pundits expected a recession this year (2024). Now they’re saying: “Probably not.” Jobs become scarcer during a recession; the fact that one is (apparently) off the table is good news for those looking for a new position, whether currently employed or not.
And that brings us to our advice for this blog post:
If you’re currently employed in a job that you truly dislike/isn’t a good fit/doesn’t pay what you know you’re worth, should you stick around until you find another one, or just quit now?
Stay put!
In fact, it’s far, far better no matter how the economy is doing to look for work while still employed. Employers often prefer to hire the currently employed: they tend to be “biased” against the unemployed. Is it fair? No! Many people receive pink slips during a recession (or even during boom times). Companies decide to let employees go for many reasons and truly great workers often are let go during downturns along with workers who aren’t great. The lesson here is to stick it out at your current position no matter how much you dislike the position while you look for a new one. If you’re still unconvinced, here’s another important fact: the longer you’re unemployed the longer it will take you to find work.
There’s a real reason for this, what the article linked to above calls the “mixture probability.” We’ll explain by directly quoting the explanation from the article:
- The probability of finding a job declines with unemployment duration for each worker. This may reflect a variety of factors, such as a loss of skills during unemployment or discrimination against long-term unemployment. This is the “structural duration dependence” force.
- The probability of finding a job also depends on workers’ varying skills in finding jobs: Some are more skilled and energetic in job finding than others. Thus, the long-term unemployed population is a subset of workers that disproportionately represents those who are bad at finding jobs. This is the “heterogeneity” force.
Does it mean you’ll need to take time from your leisure hours to look for work? Of course. Will you have to ask the recruiter/hiring manager if you could interview before/after work so that you don’t have to take time away from work (and potentially make your supervisor suspicious)? Possibly. (Most recruiters/hiring managers expect the currently employed to do this, so don’t worry about asking. It’s become much easier to have these interviews early/late due to Zoom and other computer/laptop video tools.) Using your off hours to interview is inconvenient but we stand heartily behind our belief that doing so is far better than quitting– and having all that great flexibility as to when you can interview – before finding a new position.
You can even start your job search today: take a look at the many different job openings we have here at Debbie’s Staffing and apply to those that you believe are a good match.
Or, simply register with us/send us your resume: we often fill positions before we ever post them on our job board.