With low unemployment, many quit before job jumps

Feeling uneasy working for a retailer’s corporate office, Dan Makauskas joined the growing national trend of quitting a job before beginning the search for a new one.

“Whether I find a better traditional office job or start my own venture, there are so many new career paths available if you’re aggressive,” said Makauskas, 25, of Orlando.

Nationally, 3.56 million people quit their jobs in May — more than double the 1.6 million layoffs for the month — according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The quit numbers are the most since January 2001.

Career advisers in Central Florida aren’t seeing people resign en masse, and they maintain that it’s usually not the best approach to improving one’s career path. Yet low unemployment makes it possible to succeed in doing it.

Unemployment in Central

“Even if you’re making a change out of desperation ... whatever career path you want to be on, keep doing that work.” Russell Vickery of CareerSource Central Florida

Florida dropped to 3.1 percent in June, the lowest mark since December 2006. That’s a far cry from January 2010, when unemployment soared to 11.6 percent during the throes of the Great Recession.

With so few people unemployed, companies are paying higher wages and offering bonuses to lure talent.

Increased job-hopping could push companies to pay even more, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month. Employees’ raises are about 30 percent higher when they move to a new employer.

After she left her job as a grant manager for a nonprofit in Little Rock, Ark., Kimberly Enoch told the Journal she found work at a bank within three months — and earned a 14 percent raise, a shorter commute and better working conditions. “I knew I could do more,” she said.

People who took whatever jobs they could find during the recession, needing to pay bills at the time, can be most drawn to the thought of packing it in and starting over with no clear path.

“They can get frustrated with things, and just quit,” said Russell Vickery of CareerSource Central Florida, which provides training for workers and connects them with employers. “... Longterm, that can hurt them.”

A handful of intermediateor mid-level professionals in Central Florida have sought jobs after quitting lately, he said, adding that it can take four to six months to find new work. One key is to avoid repeating a second mistake of taking an ill-suited job.

“Even if you’re making a change out of desperation ... whatever career path you want to be on, keep doing that work,” he said.

Several attendees at Wednesday’s CFEC Job Fair said they hadn’t quit their jobs before beginning their search. Typically, about 60 to 80 percent of attendees have yet to leave the jobs they’re seeking to replace, said Tracy Trimblett of Christian Help Foundation, which runs regular Central Florida Employment Council job fairs in Orlando.

“I don’t think quitting is happening as much here in Orlando because the pay scale is much lower, and people don’t have the ability to float on savings while they reposition themselves,” she said. But workers are leaving for better jobs elsewhere, she said.

Leaving a contract job that provided in-home therapy services for children and families, counselor Alexa Pliskow said she quit to seek a new job when she saw her caseload was small, so that she wouldn’t force too many clients to adjust to someone new.

The toughest part of the search, she said, has been landing an interview amid several opportunities she’s applied for.

“There are a lot of staff openings out there,” said Pliskow, 26, of Orlando, adding that she’s got an eye out for jobs with schools in particular. “I just keep checking.”

Makauskas moved to Orlando recently from Lancaster, Pa., with his girlfriend, living with her family in Baldwin Park until the couple finds work.

The ability to make money via “side hustles” such as Uber or Lyft, he said — or doing odd jobs such as moving, painting or landscaping, which he’s done since 2010 — gave him as much confidence to seek a new path as did record low unemployment.

Makauskas says he’s got some good leads, both similar to his previous job or where he could apply his experience to something new.

He’s looking for a more modern workplace that does not have to include the pingpong tables or beer kegs, but doesn’t limit people to eight straight hours in cubicles, either. “I want to go somewhere where I feel they’ll support me now and in the future,” he said. Got a news tip about jobs and careers in Central Florida, or taking care of your money? wzimmerman@tronc.com or Twitter, @ZMediaWorks