RUIDOSO, NM — There’s a lot to love about the sleepy mountain town of Ruidoso, New Mexico, but life the last few years have been anything but simple for the service industry.

"After the pandemic hit, I mean, It was like, where did everybody go," said Chon Caswell, the general manager of two restaurants in town.

"Everything's short-term rentals, Airbnb. It's tough living for the backbone of this economy," he added.

"Just like everywhere in the United States, we're severely handicapped when it comes to workforce and one of the biggest contributing factors to that is housing," said Mayor Lynn Crawford.

It’s a similar story in tourism-driven places across the nation, but further hardship this town is facing may be able to change mindsets that were once against the idea of affordable housing.

In April, a wildfire wiped out around 200 homes in an area of town that primarily housed folks who were part of the local workforce. It's kicked off a scramble for affordable housing that reached a new need to re-evaluate zoning laws to allow more people to live on less land.

"The community's always been 100% for it until you pick a spot and then it's, well not, you can't do this. We don't want you to do that," said Crawford.

Changing neighbors’ minds about affordable housing is one of the biggest hurdles to its creation.

A 2019 Redfin study showed that home buyers and sellers are nearly twice as likely to oppose housing density in their neighborhoods than they are to support it and more than half support zoning policies that limit density while 27 percent support it.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition guesses that the country is short 7 million rental homes for low-income renters. That’s about 1 in 4 of all rental households nationwide.

"A lot of it is the narrative that's been put out the, that the people that live there are being brought in from outside the community, they're the dregs of our community," he said.

The data, though, disproves that stigma. The National Low Income Housing Coalition says building 100 affordable housing units generates $11.7 million in local income, $2.2 million in taxes and 161 local jobs in the first year alone.

Mayor Crawfoird says Ruidoso is beginning to see the necessity as well as the benefits of having affordable housing.

"What this fire has done and the devastation is put faces. These are some of our firemen that have lost their homes. These are people that work at the hospital. These are people that work at our restaurants, our grocery stores that stock your shelves. Those are the people that have been affected," said Crawford.

The village is working on several solutions including an enterprise fund for housing, tax credits and building modular homes. Crawford says this is possible because the state and local governments, as well as the community, are working together.

"We've been working on these plans constantly, but now some of the doors are opening and we're running through those and those people are working with us and we do appreciate everything," he said.

For business folks like Caswell, he hopes more communities change their perspective on affordable housing.

"Hopefully we can get a change of hearts and minds," he said.

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. — Mike Jenne takes his job as a van driver seriously; so seriously that he even lets his riders pick the music.

"I'm getting used to country music. That's not really my favorite, but I'm getting used to it," he laughed.

Every day, he drives his van more than 100 miles, helping a particular group of folks get to and from their jobs. A group that Jenne himself is a part of.

"I was having trouble finding the job because when I was younger, I did a bunch of things that I wasn't supposed to be doing, and a lot of people wouldn't accept the things that were on my record," he said.

Jenne is one of 77 million people in the country that have an arrest or conviction on their record. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, the unemployment rate for this population is 27% and 60% for folks up until four years after their release.

"I've since, I fixed those problems, and now, they're not an issue, but companies don't really understand that," he said. "That sort of hurts your pride."

These numbers are significant, but so are the statistics of our current labor shortage.

The Chamber says there are more than 10 million open jobs right now, but only 5.8 million unemployed people. Thanks to a number of factors, including pandemic-spurred early retirement and parents staying home due to a lack of child care, we're short 4 million people to fill jobs.

"It's just better to meet people where they're at and feel that they don't have to compromise their personal needs for their work needs," said Daryn Forgeron, who is a staff member at Working Fields.

It's a unique staffing agency in Vermont that helps folks with criminal records, or people struggling with homelessness, addiction mental illness, get on the right path to finding a job, with both community resources and peer support.

Historically, it's been tough work, but over the last year, they've noticed more employers asking for help.

"We've seen it kind of on the large scale in terms of just employers are more ready to partner with us. I think in the last year alone, we signed 35 new clients, which is incredible," she said. "There's more willingness to understand what we're talking about. There's a more openness of mind in terms of, 'Oh yeah, of course, there are people who are ready to work. I need them right now.'"

Tapping into a once-shunned workforce is good for business. The Center for Economic and Policy Research says that refusing to hire people with criminal records shuts the country out of up to $87 billion in annual GDP.

Eighty-five percent of HR leaders say second-chance hires perform the same or better than other employees.

"They'll show up as better work workers. They will be loyal, they will be punctual, they will be the things that you want when they can also be individually fulfilled," Forgeron said.

Jenne not only drives people who got a job through Working Fields to their jobs, but he also got back on his feet because of them. To him, it's way more than being about a company's bottom line, having someone take a chance on you is about building back up.

"I told them my situation and where I'm coming from, and they encouraged me and actually helped me recover," he said.

"We see you as a human being and not just the story that's been told about you... and employers are more willing to see that and employers are more willing to support that, and when they do, that person can build the life that they want and that is enormous," said Forgeron.

Our past is a part of our story, but for the people who believe it shouldn't always dictate our future, they hope that this pattern of employers taking chances on more folks continues well past the current worker shortage.

"Don't just look at the bad things. Look at their accomplishment, you know, just look beyond the mistakes," said Jeanne.

Anastasia Pleasant thought she'd found a dream job working remotely.

Pleasant found a job opening online at Indeed.com, a legitimate job posting website that says it removes tens of millions of job listings each month that do not meet its quality guidelines.

The posting was for an executive assistant at a company supposedly called Guaranteed Finance Pro.

"And like I told you, I worked in journalism and I just I can't believe this happened to me," Pleasant said.

They offered to hire Pleasant right away — no interview required, which she thought was odd.

"And they said on the phone that this is a legitimate job and then emailed me, 'this is a legitimate job.' So I thought, 'well, OK, let's just go for it,'" Pleasant said.

Her supposed boss sent a check for $500 to buy supplies, but then he asked her to wire some payments to software vendors, which he said he would reimburse.

"So that should have been the first red flag that I ignored. And after that then they were sending me more checks and asking me to deposit them," Pleasant said.

Pleasant kept depositing the company’s checks, but her boss also kept asking her to wire money to more vendors.

Within days, Guaranteed Finance Pro’s checks started bouncing.

A panicked Pleasant learned her checking and savings accounts were empty, and she had a negative $25,000 balance.

Her boss texted back, “Be calm okay, do not panic.”

"And they just kept lying. And one of the checks that I have, they sent me a check for $34,000 to make up for everything. But then that bounced," Pleasant said.

Pleasant reported the scam to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, the State Attorney General and the FBI.

No one answered the company phone, the website had no information and Pleasant's money has vanished.

"I feel really stupid and embarrassed and I don't want that to happen to anybody else," she said.

Indeed released the following statement:

"Indeed puts job seekers at the heart of everything we do. We have a dedicated search quality team who goes to extraordinary lengths deploying a variety of techniques to assess the suitability and validity of job listings. Indeed removes tens of millions of job listings each month that do not meet our quality guidelines. In addition, Indeed will not do business with an employer if their job listings do not pass our stringent quality guidelines. We encourage job seekers to report any suspicious job advertisements to us, or if they feel it necessary, to make a report to the police. We encourage all job seekers to review our Guidelines for a Safe Job Search."

KANSAS CITY, MO — Mark Byrd is in the business of second chances.

An HVAC specialist by trade, his passion to help people re-entering society from the prison system started more than a decade ago when he started KC Redemtion and the New Reflections Technical Institute, a job training program that prepares students for their new life.

"We try to help them get to a point where they can survive and be sustainable and to have a good life, you know, and most of them never realized they could have it," he said.

He's helping students like Otis Steen, who went from the judicial system, to financial stability by becoming a truck driver.

"As a person looking from the outside in, it seemed like a dream, like a fantasy. But going through it, it's still like a dream, like a dream state, like, 'Wow, is this true?'" said Steen.

Employment reduced recidivism and makes communities safer. While Byrd believes in his students, it can be an uphill battle convincing employers to give them their second chance.

However, he’s noticed recently that the Great Resignation has been opening more doors.

"When we first started it, we had one company that was felon-friendly. Now, we have over 70," he said.

In November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said a record high of 4.5 million people quit their job that month alone. We’ve seen the impacts of the Great Resignation reflected in food service, deliveries, and supply chain tangles.

Every year, 600,000 Americans leave the judicial system looking for employment. Although more than 1 in 4 people re-entering society is unemployed, studies have shown that they stay at their jobs longer and are less likely to quit than the general workforce.

"This person here wants that opportunity. This is their second chance might even be their third chance, but in most cases, it's their last chance. So, when they get this opportunity there, their work starts at seven o'clock. They're there at 6:30, drinking coffee in their hand, ready to go," said Byrd.

"We get calls or emails on a weekly basis," said Dwayne Williams, the president and CEO of 12^th Street Heritage Development Corporation in Kansas City.

A decade years ago, they started a re-entry program and are noticing exactly what Mark has been: more employers looking to hire their clients.

"We have individuals who are looking for jobs. And so now, they've got another resource that they can, that they can tap," Williams said.

"I think a lot of employers will be surprised at the work ethic of individuals who come out of the system, you know, because a lot of them, they really not trying to go back to the system," said Gary Riley.

Riley has been with 12th Street for years. He says getting that second chance turned his life around.

"It helped me be a better man for tomorrow. You know what I mean? It showed me how to dig within deep, within to be the leader that I know I can be the follower I know I can be," he said.

As people like Byrd and Williams continue to match their students with employers, they hope this trend of hiring more people looking for a second chance continues well after the great resignation subsides.

"I advise our employees to look deep into themselves and figure out that mistake they made and what they needed and who helped them, who helped them. Now, it's their time to help someone else, and we can rebuild America. We can rebuild our workforce," said Byrd.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — No matter where you look in the country right now, “Now Hiring” and “Help Wanted” signs are everywhere. They are signals that workers are playing a big role in the nation’s economic recovery from the pandemic.

“We have never seen anything like this before,” said Kishore Kulkarni, an economics professor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver.

He said the tight labor market means businesses have no choice but to pay workers more to get them in the door.

“They have to because right now the ball is in labor's court and they are dictating some terms of what the wages should be,” Kulkarni said.

A new survey from the National Association for Business Economics backs that up.

Their October survey found 58% of businesses reported having to increase workers’ pay, up from 51% from their previous survey in July.

NABE’s Ken Simonson said the number of businesses reporting that was a record in the survey’s nearly 40-year history.

“More companies in the survey had raised wages in the last three months than we had ever seen before in the history of this survey,” said Simonson, who is also the chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America.

Within that, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports wages are up 4.5% percent this year. Certain industries are seeing bigger jumps, including construction, with wages up 7.1%, and hospitality, where wages are up 11.2%.

So, what does that mean for the debate over minimum wage?

“I think that minimum wage is much less of an issue than it was even two years ago, just before the pandemic hit,” Simonson said. “I'm sure that there are members of Congress who would still like to raise that floor, but I don't think you're going to see companies that have started offering $14 or $16 and bonuses or college tuition, go back to anything like that statutory minimum wage. So, for now, that's not going to be an issue.”

MSU economics professor Kulkarni said rising wages can be a double-edged sword. Employees benefit from making more money, but some things end up costing more.

“The number one concern is how big is inflation going to be,” Kulkarni said.

It’s a labor and wage situation experts believe will eventually sort itself out.

“In about eight to 10 months, this will all calm down,” Kulkarni said, “but this holiday season looks like a season which is unprecedented and that we will have a tremendous demand for labor.”

It is a holiday season for the job market with the potential to look unlike any before.

ATLANTA, Ga. — Just about every morning, Monicha Taylor hits the gym. She says it helps with productivity before logging on to work at her kitchen table.

“My favorite thing about it is the flexibility that you get,” Taylor said.

Her current public relations job makes it possible for her to work from home, but just like 25 million other Americans, she was unemployed the first few months of the pandemic.

“It was super frustrating, honestly, and scary," Taylor said. "I live alone and I have to take care of myself, so I just wasn't sure how I was going to come out of this or how I was going to stay afloat.”

Since graduating college in 2017, Taylor has been able to stay afloat thanks, in part, to freelance opportunities through Black Girl Group.

Founded by Stephanie Alston, Black Girl Group is a creative staffing platform that connects men and women of color to companies seeking more diverse creative talent.

“Let’s say they're looking for a graphic designer," Alston said. "They'll come to us and we will vet out the top three candidates for them and then we'll send those candidates over for them. They'll interview those candidates and if they decide to hire, then a relationship with them is made and then that person is able to move forward in that role.”

Alston says the idea came to her in a dream. Her goal is to diversify companies all over the U.S. by bringing people of color to the table.

“Being in PR in the past and being the only Black woman in the room on several occasions, what I realize is that oftentimes either there was not enough representation at the table or there was representation where people were afraid to speak up because they were fearful that they would be retaliated against if they did speak up,” Alston said.

Bringing women of color into the workforce is critical right now. Demographics professor Rogelio Saenz at the University of Texas-San Antonio says Black and Latina women have been the most heavily impacted by job loss during the pandemic.

“Childcare disproportionately falls to women and then with women, they also had elder care as well,” Saenz said.

Saenz’ report shows the highest peak of unemployment happened in April. Latinos had the highest unemployment rate at nearly 19%, followed by Blacks at 16.4% and whites had the lowest at around 13%.

“With respect to who was able to work from home and there that was also a significant difference, that it tended to be much more likely to be people with higher levels of education and also more likely to be whites compared to African Americans and Latinos,” Saenz said.

“The Band-Aid that was often put on the struggles that women of color face in the workplace, it was ripped off,” Alston said.

Saenz says the lack of opportunity for higher education and well-paying jobs among women of color is an issue of sexism and systemic racism. Because of that, he says the types of jobs many women of color have are in the service or tourism industries, those heavily affected while we were in lockdown.

The need for diversity became essential and noticed after George Floyd was killed in late May of 2020. Alston says that's when companies started making commitments toward diversity.

“It is unfortunate that the death of George Floyd, you know, was one of those things that propelled us into that," Alston said. "But at the same time, we are now able to give more people opportunities to sit at the table who may have otherwise never had the opportunity before.”

Taylor says her long-term goal is to become an entrepreneur like Alston, propelling women of color into high-paying and meaningful jobs.

The pandemic has turned even more people into gamers. About one in three people worldwide play video games, according to the Entertainment Software Association.

But it’s more than just fun.

“And we've been able to make sure that we were producing things that not only brought people together in ways that made them enjoy the games, but connected them to each other because today 65% of people in America who play games play with other people,” said Stanley Pierre-Louis, President and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association.

Video game popularity was already on the rise before COVID-19, supporting more than 425,000 jobs directly and indirectly related to the industry last year.

It generated more than 90 billion in economic output, according to the Entertainment Software Association impact report.

It includes jobs in engineering, coding, video game design, storyline and even professional players.

“What that's meant is that within schools, you now have esports scholarships and in fact there are over 200 varsity sports programs around the nation, creating new opportunities for people to play professionally,” said Pierre-Louis.

Education and jobs related to gaming can also lead to other opportunities outside the industry. The graphic design and visual elements that go into video games are as in demand in other fields.

“So, if you learn video game design, you're able to also help with airlines simulations and so it's creating opportunities across many sectors,” said Pierre-Louis.

Advancements rooted in the video game industry have found their way into other areas, including medical imaging and robotics, military training and simulation, and education.

Those directly employed by the video game industry make on average $121,000 a year.

BRIGHTON, Colo. — School districts across the country are feeling the weight of employee shortages, including paraeducators and paraprofessionals.

“We have medically fragile students that require one-on-one supervision,” said Michal Clow, the director of human resources for the Colorado school district 27J. “We have to provide that supervision. We have to keep them safe. Literally, they rely on those staff members for their lives every day.”

Ever since the pandemic started, school districts across the country have been struggling to keep employees.

According to a Frontline Education survey, in 2021 75% of school districts in cities reported shortages. Thirty-five percent of districts reported having shortages in paraprofessionals and paraeducators.

“When things started to go online and students were no longer going to the classrooms the role of paraeducator had to shift and change,” said Less Thomas, the director of education at Pierce College. “A lot of school districts didn’t know what to do with their paras. So, they’re experiencing this turnover where their paras are becoming certificate teachers. Part of the issue is that para’s make around minimum wage or a little more. So, they’re thinking ‘if I can make substantially more money just by going to a couple more years of school, why wouldn’t I do that?’”

According to Clow, students desperately need paras.

“These are critically important to many of our students and many of our classrooms and they take some of the burden off our teachers so they can focus on teaching and instruction,” Clow said. “And some of the administrative tasks that happen in the classroom, so they support a wide range of important tasks that happen every day.”

Clow said their district is down paras by 10%, which is why it changed tactics to recruit.

“From a financial standpoint, there’s not a pool of money to pull from. We certainly can’t raise revenue like a private business could do,” Clow said. “Our line of recruiting has changed – typically we say that these are benefitted positions and it’s a stable job and you get to be on your kids’ schedule, we’ve changed our thinking a little bit on the recruiting side by saying these our flexible jobs. That flexibility seems to be potentially a bigger draw than the benefits and the stability.”

To combat the shortage, Shirley Dawson at Weber University said the school created a paraeducator and paraprofessional certificate program that grants students free tuition.

“At Weber State, right now, we are actively in the process of preparing seventy future or current paraeducators,” Dawson said. “Financial support is often the greatest stumbling block for paraeducators entering the field. If we can support paraeducators by removing the barrier the flood gates just open it seems with people that are interested.”

School districts hope these programs and tactics will bring more paras back to where they’re needed most, in the classroom.

More Americans are looking to religious exemptions to avoid getting the COVID-19 vaccine. But this influx of requests has been baffling some religious leaders.

“Recently, I’ve had a bunch of people ask me about religious exemptions,” said Muhammad Kolila, Imam at the Downtown Denver Islamic Center.

Kolila says he's seen an uptick in the number of people asking him questions about the COVID-19 vaccine.

“There is no such thing as an exemption from the vaccination,” he explained. “It’s encouraged because that's the best way to reach the people’s safety, and it’s part of our religion that we try as much as we can to protect our bodies and protect other people's bodies too.”

He said, specifically, the mRNA vaccine does not interfere with their beliefs.

“The only time the exemption happens is if the vaccine contains pork. That's the time we consider the vaccination is not permissible, because we don't eat pork or include anything in our bodies related to pork. Another is alcohol,” he said.

Kolila is not alone.

“People have asked me to give them exemptions, and I can’t think of any religious basis to do so,” said Rabbi Joseph Black, the Senior Rabbi at Temple Emanuel Denver.

He faces the same questions.

“Our top priority in every one of our Jewish values is an idea called 'pikuach nefesh,' which means 'preservation of life,' and according to Jewish tradition, saving a life trumps any other commandment,” he said. “We require all the students in our early learning center to be vaccinated.”

Churches across the country have been clarifying their stance. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America announced in a statement: “...there is no exemption in the Orthodox Church for Her faithful from any vaccination for religious reasons.”

Other entities, like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, have released similar statements.

“What a religious exemption does is it allows a person on the basis of a religious belief to claim to be exempt from some general legal requirement,” said Leslie Francis, the Director of the University of Utah Center for Law and Biomedical Sciences.

She is a professor of law and philosophy.

“Part of what's worrying a lot of people in this discussion is, aren't we just gonna have a whole lot of people saying they have religious exemptions when maybe they don't?” she said.

That’s exactly what legal expert Christopher Jackson has been seeing as more employers implement mandates.

“Religious exemptions are kind of a thing in employment and constitutional law, but they haven't come up all that much. I think that there has been an uptick in the last few weeks, especially after the president announced a new OSHA rule mandating vaccines for most employers. It really has come up a lot more frequently,” said Jackson, an appellate partner at Holland & Hart LLP.

He said the line isn’t clear.

“The religious belief has to be a sincerely held one. But there isn't a great case for an employer to dive into that, or try to figure out if somebody has a sincerely held religious belief.”

Jackson said he sees multiple ways this could go.

“I could see this opening a floodgate of lawsuits, of seeing federal courts getting involved, or it may be in a few weeks that this mostly dies down. That they kind of sorted out who really should be exempted and who shouldn't and maybe it goes away, and I don’t really think anyone has a clear idea yet which way this is going to go,” he said.

For now, churches will make decisions based on their core beliefs.

“The value of saving life, the value of preserving community, the value of supporting one another, is more important,” Rabbi Black said.

First, everyone went there for hand sanitizer, and then, it was toilet paper. Since the start of the pandemic, grocery stores have not seen a decline in business, and it has made workers there some of the most susceptible to COVID-19 exposure.

“Just worried because I know what could happen,” said Bill Easton, a cashier at Safeway who has worked there for the last 28 years. “When [customers] come through the line, [they tell us they have COVID], and a couple times, there have been people that don’t have masks.”

Easton says during the pandemic, protocols at the grocery store have improved to keep them safe. Plastic barriers separate cashiers from customers, masks are required, and pumping hand sanitizer throughout the day becomes a normal activity. However, Easton still handles money that has exchanged who knows how many hands.

“Man, I got the hand wipes on my right [and I’m using them] as fast as I can possibly go,” Easton said, laughing.

The same goes for Pamela Gabbert, who has worked more hours in the last 10 months than she has in her last 15 years at Sam’s Meat Market in Denver.

“At the start of [the pandemic], it was really crazy,” said Gabbert. “We were working 80-hour weeks over the course of five days.”

“When March first came, I thought everybody got their tax money back early,” joked Gabbert’s mother, Debbie Sam, who owns the market. “That’s what I thought, honestly.”

Despite the economy, people still had to get food, and with little to do at home, more people took up cooking and it made life at grocery stores busy.

“Being busy has been a blessing in disguise, to be honest,” said Gabbert. “You know, we never lost our job. We had consistency with our customers, with our hours, and that’s never been a really big concern for us."

If anything, when you ask people how they are doing, the pandemic has made them take a second to reflect and realize that despite the drawbacks, there are reasons to be grateful.

The strong jobs recovery has prompted a lot of workers to part ways with their employers — in many cases, to pursue jobs offering more flexibility or better pay.

In June, nearly 4 million workers quit their jobs, according to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But when it comes to leaving your job, there should be more to it than walking into your boss' office and yelling: 'I quit!' (No matter how tempting that might be.)

How you leave your current job can affect your career down the road and you don't want to burn any bridges. Here's how to do it right:

Tell your boss first

You might be excited to share the news of your new role with your work friends, but your boss should be the first person to hear about your exit.

"It is a courtesy," said Marianne Ruggiero, founder and president of Optima Careers. "They are the people who likely made the decision to hire you and you want them to have a chance to understand and get information and make a plan."

If possible, have this conversation in person or, if you're working remotely, on a video meeting.

When having the conversation, Ruggiero recommends getting straight to the point by saying something like: "I want to let you know that I've decided to take a new position and am resigning from my position effective [provide date]."

If the boss seems surprised by the news, Ruggiero suggested following up by saying something along the lines of: "I'm very grateful for all that you've done for me and I hope you understand that I'm doing this to advance my career. It will be an opportunity to further my skills or leverage my skills or learn more about..."

Alison Sullivan, career trends expert at Glassdoor, suggested discussing with your boss about how best to inform your colleagues.

"Think about how you are going to communicate with your team and boss and what you are going to say about the reasons you're leaving," she said. "Make sure to be clear and be supportive in helping the transition process."

Give some notice (if you can)

Giving at least two weeks' notice of your departure has become a generally accepted norm.

The heads up helps managers figure out things like how to shift your workload, get up-to-date on the status of assignments and inform clients.

While it's not necessarily a requirement to give that much notice, departing abruptly could have negative consequences, including leaving a poor impression and having co-workers wondering what happened.

"If you have some sort of agreement that has a different notice period then you should follow that because you could lose out on other benefits that you might be entitled to," said Davida Perry, managing partner of Schwartz Perry & Heller in New York City.

You should also be prepared to be asked to leave the day you give notice — especially if you are going to a competitor.

"Most people know before they've resigned what the general convention is in that particular environment," said Ruggiero.

The resignation letter

If you're asked for a resignation letter, Perry advised keeping it short: thank your employer for the opportunity and state when your last day of work will be.

However, if you're leaving over a possible legal claim, such as an allegation of workplace safety violations, Perry advised speaking to an attorney before submitting a resignation letter. Anything in writing could be used against you later.

"If there is some illegal activity going on... you're definitely going to want to push back or write a letter identifying the fact that you are not voluntarily resigning."

Help with the transition

When delivering the news of your departure, have a plan to help your boss with the transition after you leave.

Career coach Hallie Crawford suggested being ready with a status update on all your projects and assignments, and offering up suggestions about which colleagues might take them over.

"Be proactive and have a transition plan. It will help smooth things over and make it easier on everybody. But make sure what you are promising you can do is realistic," said Crawford.

Stay positive

Try to remain cordial and productive with your colleagues during your remaining time. You never know when your paths might cross again.

"These are the people who are going to be your next reference," said Ruggiero, adding that you should also identify who you'd like to try to keep in your network as you move forward in your career.

Reach out to any sponsors and colleagues you wish to carry on relationships with and ask them to have coffee or lunch with you before your departure.

"Pick a handful of people you'd like to stay connected with and let them know that," said Crawford. "You want to close your professional relationship out with people properly, just as if you are onboarding, you want to offboard correctly as well."

Don't waver

Even though you might have spent hours deliberating about moving, your boss might still try to make an offer to keep you on board.

If you've already concluded you are leaving and have accepted another offer, Crawford advised being direct.

"You need to stick to your 'no.'" She recommended saying something like: Thank you so much for the offer. I really appreciate it, but I've really made up my mind.

"Keep it short and sweet. If you start to say more, you might be leaving the door open," Crawford said.

Federal Labor Department statistics show there were over 4 million more job openings this May compared to last year. That's good news for people who are looking to change jobs or switch careers. And there are a lot of them.

Experts predict a huge wave will leave their employer in the months ahead. 

Jessica Brooks, from Chicago, switched careers mid-pandemic.

"The transition was because I felt kind of stuck in the place that I was in career-wise," Brooks said.

One in four workers plans to look for a job at a different company once the pandemic subsidies, according to a survey by Prudential Financial. And one in five workers switched careers over the past year.

Geleen Antonio left a health care consultant position she's held for six years.

"What's really important for me now is really location independence, the freedom to be able to work out of any city, any country, maybe a coffee shop, even that I didn't have before," Antonio said.

A different survey from LinkedIn this past April found the reason people are switching is that they’re looking for more job flexibility, be it flexible work locations or work hours.

Another top reason? Work-life balance.

Career expert Colleen Sauer says the pandemic has helped us re-prioritize what's important to us.

"COVID put everything into perspective for people," said Sauer. "And what they're overwhelmingly asking for is flexibility. Many employers didn't approach the pandemic in the best way possible for a lot of different reasons. Employees are burnt by that." 

Entrepreneurship is also on the rise. More than half of professionals surveyed by LinkedIn (51%) see themselves either starting a business or freelancing. That includes Andrew Dvorscak — who decided to open a coffee company in Denver. 

 "The pandemic — it was definitely something that pushed me to do it. If I didn't get laid off, I probably would still just be sitting on my hands. Just, oh, it'd be so cool to own a coffee business someday," said Dvorscak.

Haluthai Inhmathong quit her 9-5 marketing job to start her own food pop-up Basil Babe. She says, "working from home kind of puts pressure on a lot of things and you're left alone with your own thoughts. I knew I was unhappy; a job should never make you cry." 

The people Newsy spoke to say, whether it's a career switch or starting a new business, the pandemic sped things up.

Inhmathong says, "if there was no pandemic it was leading up to it. But with the lockdown, it definitely was faster."

This story originally reported by Cat Sandoval on Newsy.com.

Related video above: Legal cannabis businesses reached a record $17.5 billion in sales in 2020Amazon said Tuesday that it will stop testing jobseekers for marijuana.The company, the second-largest private employer in the U.S. behind Walmart, is making the change as states legalize cannabis or introduce laws banning employers from testing for it. In March, a New York man sued Amazon, saying the company rescinded his job offer at an Amazon warehouse because he tested positive for marijuana, even though the city banned employers from testing job applicants for cannabis in 2020. Amazon said in a blog post that it will still test workers for other drugs and conduct “impairment checks” on the job. And the company said some roles may still require a cannabis test in line with Department of Transportation regulations.Related video: The Perfect Time of Day and the Best Time of the Year to Apply to JobsSeattle-based Amazon also said Tuesday that it will support the federal legalization of marijuana by pushing lawmakers to pass the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021.