"Now I've been lookin' for a job, but it's hard to find," sang Bruce Springsteen, the poet laureate of the working man, in "Atlantic City." Lately, however, it seems as if it's the jobs that are doing the looking: As of March 2022, according to a Job Openings and Labor Turnover report from the Labor Department, 6.3 million people left their jobs and 11.5 million job openings remained just that—open. The ongoing labor shortage continues to be one of the top worries among CEOs in the United States, even surpassing inflation.

Miren Ivankovic, adjunct professor of economics at Clemson University, suggests a connection between those two concerns as a reason for the lack of employment enthusiasm. "Wages have gone up on the per hour basis of work and salaries, but inflation is reducing those in real terms." But University of Oregon professor Gordon Lafer offers a more philosophical take: "I think some of this is also the sense among people in their teens and twenties that -- except for a small percentage at the top of the economy -- they despair of ever being able to live as well as their parents, and they do not see that hard work, loyalty, creativity, etc. will win them either job security or significantly higher wages."

Whatever the reasons, the Great Resignation remains in full swing. In some states, however, that swing is more deeply felt than in others, as a new WalletHub study illustrates.