The US quits rate was 1.9% in August 2026, the latest BLS JOLTS month, with 3,066,000 people quitting their jobs. That compares with 2.0% a year earlier, a 2019 average of 2.3% and the 3.0% peak of the Great Resignation in November 2021 and April 2022. Accommodation and food services has the highest quits rate at 3.5%, while real estate and rental and leasing is lowest among private industries at 0.9%.
Live data from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, seasonally adjusted. Latest month: August 2026 (preliminary). Every rate on this page updates itself when BLS publishes a new month.
Live from BLS JOLTS · latest month August 2026 (preliminary)
Quits rate by industry tracker
1.9%
of all workers quit in the month
2.3%
2019 monthly average, for comparison
3.5%
highest: Accommodation and food
0.9%
lowest: Real estate
Quits rate by industry, August 2026
US quits rate, every month since 2019
Now, a year ago and before the pandemic
| Industry | Aug 2026 | Aug 2025 | 2019 average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total nonfarm | 1.9% | 2.0% | 2.3% |
| Total private | 2.1% | 2.2% | 2.6% |
| Accommodation and food services | 3.5% | 3.9% | 4.9% |
| Retail trade | 3.0% | 2.4% | 3.3% |
| Other services | 2.7% | 2.0% | 2.3% |
| Mining and logging | 2.3% | 2.1% | 2.1% |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 2.3% | 1.1% | 3.2% |
| Professional and business services | 2.1% | 2.5% | 3.0% |
| Health care and social assistance | 2.0% | 2.2% | 2.0% |
| Transportation, warehousing and utilities | 1.9% | 2.0% | 2.2% |
| Construction | 1.8% | 1.8% | 2.3% |
| Manufacturing | 1.6% | 1.3% | 1.6% |
| Private educational services | 1.6% | 1.5% | 1.5% |
| Wholesale trade | 1.3% | 1.4% | 1.5% |
| Information | 1.1% | 1.2% | 1.6% |
| Finance and insurance | 1.0% | 1.2% | 1.3% |
| Real estate and rental and leasing | 0.9% | 1.6% | 2.0% |
| Government | 0.7% | 0.8% | 0.8% |
| Federal government | 0.5% | 0.7% | 0.6% |
| State and local government | 0.8% | 0.8% | 0.9% |
Seasonally adjusted. Source: BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, pulled October 9, 2026. The latest month is preliminary and BLS revises it the following month. The quits rate is quits during the month as a percent of employment.
Quits are the cleanest public signal of how willing workers are to walk out the door. When the rate is high, candidates are confident and movable. When it is low, people stay put and recruiters have to work harder to pry them loose.
This page pulls the latest quits rate for every industry BLS publishes, compares it with a year earlier and with 2019, and explains what it means for your sourcing.
What is the quits rate by industry right now?
In August 2026 the total nonfarm quits rate was 1.9%, according to the latest JOLTS release. The private sector rate was 2.1%, and government was 0.7%.
The tracker above ranks every industry by its latest quits rate, then compares each one with a year earlier and with its 2019 average. The latest month is preliminary and will be revised next month, and again when BLS applies its annual benchmark with the January data release. Small industries such as mining and logging or federal government can swing by a few tenths in a single month, so read one month changes there with care.
Which industries have the highest quits rate?
Accommodation and food services leads at 3.5%. Retail trade follows at 3.0%, then other services at 2.7% and mining and logging at 2.3%.
The industries at the top are usually hourly, shift based jobs with many employers competing for the same people. Switching costs are low, so workers move for a small pay bump or a better schedule.
Which industries have the lowest quits rate?
Federal government sits at 0.5% and state and local government at 0.8%. In the private sector, real estate and rental and leasing is lowest at 0.9%, followed by finance and insurance at 1.0% and information at 1.1%.
Pensions, tenure based pay and specialized roles keep people in these jobs. In white collar industries such as finance and information, a low rate also reflects a cooler hiring market for office roles.
How has the quits rate changed since 2019?
The total nonfarm quits rate held near 2.3% through 2019, dropped to 1.5% in April 2020 as the pandemic hit, then climbed to 3.0% in November 2021 and again in April 2022. Since then it has slid back. The latest reading is 1.9% in August 2026, and the line chart in the tracker shows every month since 2019.
For context, the 2019 average was 2.3%. When the current rate sits below that, workers are quitting less often than they did before the pandemic.
How does today’s quits rate compare to the 2022 peak?
In April 2022, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in a single month, the highest level since 2019. In August 2026 it was 3.1 million.
That is about 32% fewer quits per month than at the peak, a Work Insiders calculation from seasonally adjusted BLS levels.
| Industry | Aug 2019 (pre pandemic) | Apr 2022 (Great Resignation peak) |
|---|---|---|
| Total nonfarm | 2.3% | 3.0% |
| Leisure and hospitality | 4.8% | 5.5% |
| Retail trade | 3.5% | 4.3% |
| Professional and business services | 3.0% | 3.8% |
| Health care and social assistance | 2.0% | 2.6% |
| Manufacturing | 1.6% | 2.6% |
Compare those with the latest rates in the tracker: retail is at 3.0%, professional and business services at 2.1%, health care at 2.0% and manufacturing at 1.6%. Leisure and hospitality peaked even higher than this table shows, at 6.0% in March 2022.
Is the quits rate rising or falling?
Compare the latest month with a year earlier. The total rate was 1.9% in August 2026 against 2.0% a year before, and 3,066,000 people quit against 3,095,000 a year earlier.
Under the headline, industries often move in different directions. The middle table in the tracker shows every industry now and a year ago side by side, so you can see which sectors are heating up and which are cooling before you plan outreach.
What is the quits rate by region?
The same BLS table breaks quits out for four Census regions. In the August 2026 release, the South had the highest rate at 2.4% and the West the lowest at 1.3%.
| Region | Aug 2026 quits rate | Aug 2025 quits rate | Change (points) | Aug 2026 quits (thousands) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northeast | 1.7% | 1.4% | Up 0.3 | 470 |
| South | 2.4% | 2.2% | Up 0.2 | 1,422 |
| Midwest | 2.0% | 1.9% | Up 0.1 | 680 |
| West | 1.3% | 2.0% | Down 0.7 | 494 |
The West was the outlier: its rate fell from 2.2% in June 2026 to 1.3% in August. Regional estimates come from smaller samples and swing more than the national number, so treat a two month move as a signal to watch, not a trend.
Do people quit small companies or big companies more?
BLS publishes quits by establishment size for the private sector in JOLTS Table 7. In the August 2026 release, workers at establishments with 10 to 49 employees quit most often (2.5%), while sites with 5,000 or more employees had the lowest rate (0.9%).
| Establishment size | Aug 2026 quits rate | Aug 2025 quits rate | Change (points) | Aug 2026 quits (thousands) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 9 employees | 1.8% | 1.7% | Up 0.1 | 420 |
| 10 to 49 employees | 2.5% | 2.5% | No change | 1,080 |
| 50 to 249 employees | 2.3% | 2.4% | Down 0.1 | 888 |
| 250 to 999 employees | 1.9% | 1.9% | No change | 343 |
| 1,000 to 4,999 employees | 1.5% | 1.6% | Down 0.1 | 122 |
| 5,000 or more employees | 0.9% | 0.8% | Up 0.1 | 42 |
Note that BLS measures establishments (a single location), not whole companies. A large retailer’s individual stores count as small or midsize establishments.
What does a low quits rate tell you about the job market?
BLS describes quits as voluntary separations and says the rate can serve as a measure of workers’ willingness or ability to leave jobs. People quit when they are confident they can land something better.
Is this the Great Stay?
That is the popular name for it. After the Great Resignation of 2021 and 2022, workers have been staying put. The latest JOLTS month, August 2026, shows 7.1 million job openings and 5.2 million hires, with quits at 1.9% against a 2019 average of 2.3%.
What does it mean for wages?
Fewer quits usually means less wage pressure, because employers do not need to raise pay to hold people. The pay gap for movers still exists: the Atlanta Fed tracker showed median wage growth of 4.7% for job switchers versus 3.4% for job stayers in September 2026.
That premium for switching is the main lever recruiters have to move passive candidates in a low quits market.
What does the quits rate mean for recruiters?
A low quits rate does not mean nobody will move. It means you need a sharper reason and a more targeted list. Here is how to use the industry data.
Where are passive candidates most movable?
The industries at the top of the tracker, currently accommodation and food services, retail trade, other services and mining and logging, have the highest quits rates. Workers there already change jobs often, so volume outreach and fast offers work.
Where will candidates be hardest to move?
The industries at the bottom, currently real estate and rental and leasing, finance and insurance and information, along with government, have the lowest quits rates. Expect longer cycles, more counteroffers and a bigger pay premium to close. Budget extra time and track it with our cost per hire calculator.
How should staffing agencies use this?
High quits industries create steady replacement demand for clients, which suits temp and contract desks. Low quits industries create fewer openings, but each search is harder and worth a higher fee. Pair this page with job openings vs hires and the monthly market brief to time your business development.
For broader context, our labor market data page collects 35 trackers in one place, and our time to hire post covers what the low quits market means for hiring speed.
How do you read JOLTS quits data?
The BLS JOLTS program surveys employers each month about openings, hires and separations. The quits rate is the number of quits during the entire month divided by employment, times 100.
What counts as a quit?
BLS defines quits as employees who left voluntarily. Retirements and transfers to other locations are counted as other separations, not quits. Layoffs and discharges are counted separately, so a rise in layoffs does not lift the quits number.
Seasonally adjusted or not?
Use seasonally adjusted data (Table 4) to compare months. Not seasonally adjusted data (Table 11) shows raw seasonal patterns, such as summer quits in leisure and hospitality.
Why do the numbers change after release?
The latest month is preliminary and is revised the following month. Every year, the release with January data revises the past several years to new employment benchmarks and seasonal factors.
Need a definition of any term here? Our recruiting glossary explains them in plain language.
When is the next JOLTS release?
BLS releases JOLTS at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, about four to five weeks after the reference month ends, per its release schedule. This page picks up each new release within a day.
How we built this page
Industry quits rates and the national figures are pulled automatically from the BLS public data API and refresh within a day of each JOLTS release. Region and establishment size figures come from JOLTS Tables 4 and 7 in the August 2026 release. The 2019 and 2022 industry comparisons come from BLS series published on FRED. Wage growth for switchers and stayers comes from the Atlanta Fed Wage Growth Tracker. All rates are seasonally adjusted. The comparison to the 2022 peak is a Work Insiders calculation.
Quick answers
What is the current US quits rate?
1.9% in August 2026, the latest BLS JOLTS month. About 3.1 million people quit that month.
Which industry has the highest quits rate?
Accommodation and food services, at 3.5% in August 2026. Retail trade is second at 3.0%.
Which industry has the lowest quits rate?
Federal government, at 0.5%. In the private sector, real estate and rental and leasing is lowest at 0.9%.
What was the Great Resignation peak?
The quits rate peaked at 3.0%, in November 2021 and April 2022. The level peaked at 4.5 million quits in April 2022.
How does the quits rate compare with before the pandemic?
It was 1.9% in August 2026, against a 2019 average of 2.3%.
What is a normal quits rate?
Through 2019 the total rate held between 2.3% and 2.4%. Rates near 2% signal a cautious, low turnover market.
When is the next quits rate released?
BLS publishes JOLTS about four to five weeks after each month ends, and this page updates within a day of each release.
Where can I find the quits rate by industry?
In BLS JOLTS news release Table 4, or on this page, which updates itself with each release.
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