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Quits Rate by Profession, Who’s Quitting Their Jobs and Who’s Happy?

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58 comments on Quits Rate by Profession, Who’s Quitting Their Jobs and Who’s Happy?

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This is a deeper dive into my previous post Job Openings Surge to Near Record in October as Quits Rate Dips from September Record

Job Openings, Hires, Separations, and Quits

Quits hit an all-time high in September but that stat is only part of the story as the lead chart shows.  Here’s another look that compares pre-pandemic quits to now.

Quits Rate Pre-Pandemic vs October 2021

Key Points

  • The Total Nonfarm quits rate is currently 2.8% up from 2.2% pre-pandemic. Variances are deep.
  • Leisure and Hospitality had the highest quits rate pre-pandemic at 4.1% and that soared to 5.7% now.
  • Retail Trade is number 2 at 3.4% then vs 4.4% now. 
  • Transportation and Utilities, and Finance and Insurance have lower quits rates now than pre-pandemic. 
  • Finance and Insurance has the lowest quits rate at 1.0% with Transportation and Utilities at 1.8%. 

Why the BLS groups transportation with utilities and education with health is a mystery.

With over 11 million job openings, it’s easy to search for better opportunities. Leisure and Hospitality leads the way.

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Mike Shedlock

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58 Comments
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Oldest Most Voted
Six000mileyear
Six000mileyear
4 years ago
It would be interesting to see a longer data set to compare pre and post COVID job markets more accurately.
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
CPI for November out tomorrow morning.
Consensus is +0.7% month over month and +6.8% year over year.
FOMC meets next week.
Got Popcorn?
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
Remember Arab Spring?
The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 134.4 points in November 2021, up 1.6 points (1.2 percent) from October and 28.8 points (27.3 percent) from November 2020. The latest increase marked the fourth consecutive monthly rise in the value of the FFPI, putting the index at its highest level since June 2011. Among the sub-indices, in November those for cereals and dairy rose most significantly, followed by sugar, while those for meat and vegetable oils were down, albeit slightly, from the previous month.
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Eddie_T
Eddie_T
4 years ago
Reply to  Tony Bennett
And that squares so nicely with the deflation narrative…..oh wait!
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
Reply to  Eddie_T
Actually, it does.  Think of a car going 100 mph … with a brick wall dead ahead.
When riots form in the streets central bankers will have to relent.  Now it takes ever greater monetary policy to push assets higher … which blows up the bottom 50%.  My money on China to be the first major country to come to its senses.  US completely owned by Wall Street will lag.
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Eddie_T
Eddie_T
4 years ago
Reply to  Tony Bennett
I think the ONLY think that can curb inflation now is a bust. I won’t say that can’t happen, because I’ve been continuously aware it could happen since 2009.
However, food prices are not going to put anybody in the street here. Maybe in the 3rd world.  
How exactly will China come to its senses. They have far more malinvestment than any other country on earth.
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
Reply to  Eddie_T
They already are … letting Evergrande go down.  In past government would step in before default.
“I won’t say that can’t happen, because I’ve been continuously aware it could happen since 2009.”
…
CPI was benign before 2021.  Inflation a front burner topic going into midterms.  If Powell doesn’t finish taper?
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Eddie_T
Eddie_T
4 years ago
Reply to  Tony Bennett
Thought question.
Will a looming credit default in the US be dealt with by letting anybody go bankrupt, or will it be solved by actually going full MMT? 
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Eddie_T
Eddie_T
4 years ago
Evergrande finally going t!ts up according to Fitch. I guess we’ll see if that can crash the broad markets.
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
Reply to  Eddie_T
Not yet.
We’re just past the opening credits of this saga.  Markets knew this was coming.  The question now is how bad the haircuts will be.  Offshore investors will take the brunt … which may (or not) be too bad.  Beijing handling the restructuring so we’ll know sooner or later how tough they’ll be.  I’m guessing the haircut here won’t be too bad, but what was key for me was when Beijing “asked” Hui (Evergrande’s billionaire boss) to pony up some of his money first.  This will have a chilling effect on developers going forward (risk management gets MUCH better when you realize YOUR money at risk.  Unlike our banks here who can push the envelope and US taxpayer will bailout if TSHTF).  So property gains will slow … and how will their citizens think of buying property in a slowing market?
That noise you hear is the last few “click clacks” of coaster as it nears top …
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
Reply to  Tony Bennett
I am not aware of any property developers that have been bailed out by the US government ever. Granted they have bailed out other industries but never property developers.
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
Reply to  Doug78
Sure they did.  Back during GFC they allowed carryback of losses (2008 + 2009).
Anyways, in US developers hide behind LLCs to shield against personal loss.
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
Reply to  Tony Bennett
That is the tax code for individual’s and trusts’ financial participations and if you don’t like it call your congressperson. We are talking here about a company like Evergrande being bailed out in the US. It never has happened. They just go bankrupt and it goes to the courts and so forth. 
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
Reply to  Doug78
 It was for all business.  RE industry being main beneficiary and driver of legislation.
https://money.cnn.com/2009/11/05/news/economy/Extending_unemployment_benefits/index.htm?postversion=2009110612 will let all businesses apply their losses from either 2008 or 2009 to any five years prior to 2008. By doing so, they can get a refund from the IRS on the taxes they paid for those five years.
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
Reply to  Tony Bennett
I’m not sure if we’re just talking past each other.  My original point was Hui had to kick in his personal money.  In US corporate officers don’t have to kick in anything … and no clawback of salary / bonus.   LLC limited  to loss of assets in LLC.
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KidHorn
KidHorn
4 years ago
Reply to  Doug78
It wasn’t just banks that got bailed during Lehman. Some insurance companies got bailed too.
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
Reply to  KidHorn
And the GSEs.
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
Reply to  KidHorn
AIG. They had an unsupervised team in London who went crazy on OTC contracts and took down the whole company. AIG’s basic insurance businesses were very healthy and if AIG had been put into bankruptcy, and it should have been, there would have been lots of buyers for those units. Unfortunately Obama hadn’t a clue about finance in general and let those who knew about finance take him for a ride. In the end Obama was very well compensated for his service to the banking industry. He has a nice place on the beach at Martha’s Vineyard and lots of money flowing in. 
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
Finance and Insurance and Transportation and Utilities are outers in that they show a decline in quits. I can’t speak for Transportation and Utilities but I do have a theory why Finance and Insurance show and decline in quits. Those jobs are often very specialized and high-paying but those skills aren’t really transferable outside the industry. You have to be careful when you make a move because like a CNN commentator, if you make the wrong choice you might be out of the industry and never have a salary like that again.  
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Eddie_T
Eddie_T
4 years ago
Reply to  Doug78
I seem to alway meet investment bankers who retired young, for some reason. Can’t imagine why that is.    :).   Most of the investment bankers I’ve known in my life retired young….some of them ridiculously young. lol.
When I was young enough for such things to matter, I really didn’t even know what an investment banker did…..Hehehe.
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
Reply to  Eddie_T
We don’t know what we do ourselves most of the time:)  It changes extremely rapidly. Your specialty could be very lucrative one year and then  could disappear the next so the mentality is to get as much as you can now because tomorrow you may be walking on the street wondering what happened.
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StukiMoi
StukiMoi
4 years ago
Reply to  Doug78
When your “job” consists of nothing other than being dumb enough to believe that The Fed robbing others, in order to hand you 100% unearned welfare checks, somehow makes your trivially nonsensical makework something other than that; why would you quit as long as The Fed keeps robbing and printing for your benefit? After all, when you are that dumb, you’re likely dumb enough to even believe the bonus The Fed just handed you, means you are must have done something useful. Or, goodness, even “smart.”
It”s not as if anything any of them ever did over the past 50 years, ever had any connection to the kind of value adding activity which has suffered due to Covid. They’re just getting paid by The Fed. I funds The Fed stole via debasement from their productive superiors. For no other reason than that they are dumb enough to serve their duty as useful idiots without posing any kind of threat to “The system,” no matter how much wealth, resources and hence power they are being handed.
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
Reply to  StukiMoi
“After all, when you are that dumb, you’re likely dumb enough to even believe the bonus The Fed just handed you, means you are must have done something useful. “
…
Turning a wrench $
Pounding a hammer $
Tossing pizza $
Move FIRE paper from in box –> out box $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
Reply to  StukiMoi
You may say a lot about investment banking but that is full of dumb people is probably the least accurate of them all.
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StukiMoi
StukiMoi
4 years ago
Reply to  Doug78
You should get out, amongst them, more. Sit in some meetings. Be amazed at the sheer childishness which is “required” these days to “protect your wealth.” (wealth being a $50K shack which the monkeys believe are “worth” $5mill… Or a “company” which was never even intended to make a buck worth 100 times that…)
Do you reckon the ones who make no money, ever, are “smart” as well? Just by virtue of calling themselves “investment bankers” Otherwise, all you’re doing is projecting exactly the prejudices The Fed relies on it’s captive indoctrinati to project when it enriches unthreatening dunces with money stolen from potentially more threatening productives. The latter don’t need a Fed robbing others to make a living. Take The Fed away, and see what’s left of Wall Street bonuses, once they need to come from people shipping their hard earned Gold to them to “manage.”
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LPCONGAS99
LPCONGAS99
4 years ago
The tip structure put in to help business owners in that they can pay under minimum wage, but the tips get the employee to the minimum wage and tips above the minimum wage the EMPLOYER is eligible for a Fica Tip Credit( A federal tax credit)
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Yooper
Yooper
4 years ago
Reply to  LPCONGAS99
Another problem is employers (at least when I was closer to the industry), rarely made up for insufficient tips to meet the minimum wage. Not to mention those who pooled tips to underpay other positions.
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Cocoa
Cocoa
4 years ago
In Europe, you have a salary or hourly rate that is around 25 bucks an hour to be wait staff. In US, your meal cost is some price and then add 20%. In Europe you just pay the price. Tips are small if non-existent. 
The whole tip thing is a joke, and undeclared. It’s a dead business model
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Yooper
Yooper
4 years ago
Reply to  Cocoa
My thought exactly… If you have to rely on customers to directly compensate your employees in order to be a viable business – your business SHOULD FAIL.
The fact an entire industry paid the government to allow this is absurd. I mean, why not allow everyone to do this.
I’m a private pilot, and those early in their commercial careers get paid at levels I would be worried to fly with – like $35k per year for the person flying a plane-load full of people? Why not tell people to tip your pilot? “Hey, we didn’t crash, here’s a $50 bill.

I laughed at a local business owner (saltwater yoga, of all things) who said they blame lazy people to her business’ failure. Umm, minimum wage relaying on tips as your planned labor expense is just simply a business that needs to go bye-bye…
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Rbm
Rbm
4 years ago
Reply to  Yooper
Should pass the hat before you land the plane.   
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
Reply to  Cocoa
In Europe the waiters go to waiter school and then do the waiter job for the rest of their lives. You don’t pay tips and that does make it easier. Also in Europe the VAT tax is around 20% and that goes to the government and not to the waiter. Everything you buy here is in net prices so you never actually see how much you pay in taxes. There are some exceptions like electricity bills where you do have the breakdown. For France the tax on electricity is about 30%.
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Eddie_T
Eddie_T
4 years ago
Reply to  Doug78
I have found that most European waiters are not offended by a small gratuity…lol. I try not to overdo it.. I know they get paid better than American waiters.
I have spent my adult lifetime eating sit-down dinners in good restaurants…and I tip well, and I consider many of my waiters, whom I’ve known for many years, to be my friends. It’s an archaic system that appeals to certain people with intelligence and initiative, who might not have had a chance to get some fabulous job, but who have made the best of a difficult profession and reap a better financial reward than they would from some dead-end hourly job.
I will be sitting down tonight at the Salt Lick, out in Driftwood, and enjoying some of the best Korean/Texan BBQ ever smoked, and knocking back some Shiner Bock and Pinot noir and Cab Franc. Yesterday was my eldest’s birthday. She is 39. Apparently it’s been a big part of my life’s work to pick up dinner tabs and bring my big family together at the table, where we spend some of our finest moments. I don’t regret a minute  of that.
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
Reply to  Eddie_T
You are lucky that Texas is open. Over here it is still skimpy in the restaurants and my kids are in the US and we can’t go there yet mainly because of the 24 hour test limit our glorious president put in. Nevertheless we will be present through the miracle of skype and big-screen TVs. My parents in Florida go out a lot to restaurants and are having a good time. Next year we will be all together.
Nice Place! It makes me hungry just looking at it.
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TexasTim65
TexasTim65
4 years ago
Reply to  Eddie_T
I love Salt Lick. Living in Florida now, I really miss great BBQ.
But I hope that if your gonna knock back all those drinks that someone else is going to do the driving!
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Eddie_T
Eddie_T
4 years ago
Reply to  TexasTim65
Got that handled.  🙂
I just bought Sauvignon blanc too, for the new daughter-in-law, and some nasty IPA for my son.  Not all for me….but I will not be driving home.  I’ll be over the legal limit on ribs and brisket.
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
Reply to  Eddie_T
The French don’t tip waiters but they do tip at the end of the year the mailman, the Firemen and the sanitation workers. They come to your door to collect. I don’t mind it much because I like not having mail getting lost, if my house is burning to have firemen come by and having my garbage picked promptly and cleanly. Each culture has its own quirks.
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KidHorn
KidHorn
4 years ago
Reply to  Cocoa
I try to avoid sit down restaurants because of tips. Why should I pay someone 20% to do what a McDonalds employee does for free?
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Yooper
Yooper
4 years ago
Reply to  KidHorn
So, understanding my wife was paying for school as a bartender, I’d have a few beers and asked her why I needed to tip her $5 for a $25 beer tab, but $20 for a $100 wine tab? I mean, it’s the same number of glasses, same amount of work 🙂 Breaking it down, it was like $70/hr for how much actual work was done!
She wasn’t happy with me and my engineering “crap”…
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
Reply to  Yooper
Because if you hadn’t paid her $25 for a $100 order she wouldn’t have married you because she would have seen you as cheapskate. 
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Yooper
Yooper
4 years ago
Reply to  Doug78
lol, maybe true 🙂
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
Reply to  Yooper
And now I bet she doesn’t serve you beer and you have to get up and get it yourself.
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Yooper
Yooper
4 years ago
Reply to  Doug78
Now, you’re just mean 🙂  True. but mean
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
Reply to  Yooper
I am married too so I know how cunning they are.
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Zardoz
Zardoz
4 years ago
Reply to  KidHorn
McDonald’s is the epitome of haute and healthy food… and should set the standard for all other restaurants!
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KidHorn
KidHorn
4 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
You can’t eat healthy at restaurants. Even the salads are unhealthy. You have to make your own meals if you want to eat healthy.
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KidHorn
KidHorn
4 years ago
Seems low paying jobs have the highest turnover. Hasn’t it always been this way? How many people willfully choose to go from higher paying to lower paying jobs? Seems the converse is much more common.
I would guess covid has exaggerated it because the benefits as a pct of working income is higher for lower paying jobs.
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Zardoz
Zardoz
4 years ago
Not surprised about the service industry and healthcare. Nobody wants to put up with mask tantrums all day.
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Doug78
Doug78
4 years ago
“Why the BLS groups transportation with utilities and education with health is a mystery.” 
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a government agency and how dare you to question the wisdom of their decisions, methods and reasonings. 
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Yooper
Yooper
4 years ago
Anecdotal, yes, but I’m from the Fintech industry, now working in treasury at a top bank. Find many people been here for decades, retiring early now we have to go back to the office, and this whole new wave of ESG / D&I goals being tied to compensation is not an insignificant factor either. Seeing a great many lower level positions going unfilled after leaving for something more family-friendly, too. Maybe 40% turnover in the past year. Can’t find viable replacements either.
Biggest impact is the institutional/soft knowledge that is going out the door that the firm thinks can be replaced by AI and the latest/greatest MBA project.
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
Reply to  Yooper
“and the latest/greatest MBA project.”
…
Good luck.
THE best banker I ever knew started out as a teller … and worked his way up to President (of a small local bank).  Had uncommonly good street sense.  When he would go on vacation he would tell the staff he was not to be bothered – “If you need to call that tells me I didn’t train you well enough”.  NO calls.
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
It will be interesting to see how employment holds up with stimulus waning and largest decline in quarterly (Q3) productivity in over 60 years.
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Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
4 years ago
A quibble.
Your charts are dated first of month.  Report is for last business day of month.
“The number of job openings increased to 11.0 million on the last business day of October, the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.”
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Hansa Junchun
Hansa Junchun
4 years ago
Where do education and health stand? They’re not listed above. We only have:
  • Transportation and Utilities, and Finance and Insurance have lower quits rates now than pre-pandemic. 
  • Finance and Insurance has the lowest quits rate at 1.0% with Transportation and Utilities at 1.8%. 
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numike
numike
4 years ago
Where Are Workers Going? Long Covid Prevents Millions From Returning to Work
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Zardoz
Zardoz
4 years ago
Reply to  numike
If I didn’t know a couple people that had this, I’d say it was goldbricking. One is even a die hard unvaxxed trumphumper that keeps trying to find a doctor that will diagnose it as something else, and is stunned by the extent of the “conspiracy “.
Both are damn feeble, like they aged 30 years on the inside. Huffing and puffing at the slightest exertion, and neither is fat.
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RonJ
RonJ
4 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
If only the FDA hadn’t obstructed early treatment therapies. There would be far less long Covid cases.
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thimk
thimk
4 years ago
Reply to  numike
Interesting contribution , and would effect employment dynamics.  can be considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 
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Call_Me
Call_Me
4 years ago
Reply to  numike
For the U.S. in particular, the population as a whole is in much worse health compared to 40 years ago.  Covid isn’t suddenly the root of all problems, but it is a factor.
“Conclusions and Relevance  The findings of this cross-sectional analysis of a large,
population-based French cohort suggest that persistent physical symptoms
after COVID-19 infection may be associated more with the belief in
having been infected with SARS-CoV-2 than with having
laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection. Further research in this area
should consider underlying mechanisms that may not be specific to the
SARS-CoV-2 virus. A medical evaluation of these patients may be needed
to prevent symptoms due to another disease being erroneously attributed
to “long COVID.””
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