The Great Resignation, has seen employees leaving their jobs at unprecedented rates. According to the US Labor Bureau in November 2021 alone, 4.5 million employees quit.
Reports by the online media publication The Plug states that workers across the U.S. are finding more reasons to leave their jobs than having reasons to stay, citing burnout, being overworked amid shortages in some industries and pay that hasn’t kept track with inflation. But for Black workers, unaddressed racial issues in the workplace are among the long list of causes, directly fueling the Great Resignation.
Black employees simply don’t feel like they belong and consequently they are turning to entrepreneurship. The number of African American business owners in operation surged to almost 1.5 million in August 2021, up 38% from February 2020.
LinkedIn surveyed over 1,000 Black entrepreneurs to uncover why professionals are starting their own businesses, the factors prompting professionals to leave the corporate workforce and the challenges Black professionals often face when launching a business.
Some of the highlights of their research findings include:
- Over 1 in 3 (37%) Black Entrepreneurs with full time jobs have not told their company that they have their own business.
- 35% of Black Entrepreneurs with full time jobs feel that they’ve been overlooked for career advancement opportunities because they have an additional business.
- 55% of Black Entrepreneurs left the workforce to pursue entrepreneurship to have more flexibility & control over their schedule.
- 37% of Black entrepreneurs feel like they have to have someone White on their leadership team/ executive board in order to get funding.
- 43% of Black entrepreneurs believe having access to funding/capital is key to growing your business, yet only 1 in 4 Black business owners have received funding.
On today’s episode we discuss these findings and more with Rosanna Durruthy, Chief Diversity Officer for LinkedIn. Rosanna shares with us why Black employees are leaving their workplaces to start their own businesses.