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Leeds Live
Leeds Live
National
Samuel Port

Why people in Leeds are wanting to quit their jobs

Workers across Leeds say they are shocked after the city was named as one of the ‘top five where people want to quit their jobs’.

It had Leeds residents scratching their heads, baffled that a city booming with industry could have topped such a cynical chart. Google data shows that Leeds was the fourth highest city where people were searching resignation related search terms.

These included ‘resignation letter’, ‘template for resignation letter’, ‘writing a resignation letter’, ‘how to write a resignation letter’, according to a study by analysts at Funky Pigeon.

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Leeds had 80.26 average monthly searches per 10,000 people in the city searching for those resignation related terms. Cambridge came out on top with 97.97 average monthly searches per 10,000 people, Milton Keynes placed second in the list with 85.28 average monthly searches and Manchester came in third with 81.35.

Graham Wood, 64, who’s 22-year-old son has just started working in Leeds, couldn’t contain how shocked he was. He said: “I’m so surprised. I’ve come here because my son works here, he’s an engineer, and he absolutely loves it.

Bin Sparkes, who quit her job two years ago and could relate, had her own theory (Sparkes Recruitment)

“He’s a software engineer and he reckons it’s the place to be. He reckons this is a buzzing town for youngsters.

“I’m very surprised that people are thinking of wanting to chuck in their jobs around here.”

But the retired Essex cabling engineer conceded: “If there’s a very young population, perhaps they’ve got itchy feet and just want to try something different and maybe move abroad.”

Graham is originally from Cambridge and wasn’t surprised to hear it had topped the list, he said: “Possibly house prices, we’re talking that double round her. About £600k or £700k probably.”

'So much opportunity in Leeds'

Bin Sparkes who had quit her own job to start her own recruitment agency Sparkes Recruitment only two years ago, could relate and wasn’t as surprised about the data.

The mother-of-three said: “I’m a recruiter so it’s quite interesting. It could be location. But I’m thinking, are they doing it to set up for themselves? I quit about two and a half years ago and set up my own business.

“There’s so much opportunity in Leeds. There’s so much industry. Not just legal but finance companies and tech companies. There is quite a bit of money here.

“I think there is some correlation between start-ups and why people are quitting.”

Stephen Shields says young people are moving on to new jobs faster these days (Samuel Port)

Glasgow father-of-two John Shields, 60, spends half his time living in Leeds as his wife travels to the city for work. John said: “There’s a lot of IT in Leeds, isn’t there? And that’s very much a business where people quit and move companies all the time.

“It’s not like in factories where people work there for life. It’s young professionals and they don’t hang around for too long anymore. They go to Linkedin and see what else they can get. They’re moving around all the time.”

Have you been thinking of quitting your job? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

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