Special Report

’The Great Resignation’ — Just a Memory in These States

Colman Andrews

Published: October 26, 2023 10:00 am

Last year, everybody was talking (and TikTok-ing) about “The Great Resignation” — the hitherto unimaginable rate at which people were telling their employers to take this job and…well, try to fill it as best they could.

While some people doubtless left their posts as they reconfigured their lives in the face of COVID-19, the pandemic wasn’t directly responsible for the high quit rate. Instead, it was the emergence of the American economy from shut-downs and slow-downs in 2021, when job openings soared and employers raised wages (and frequently offered the option of remote or hybrid work) in the face of fierce competition. (These are the highest-paying jobs you can have in America.)

The trend only grew in 2022. That year, an estimated 50.5 million people walked out on their employers, compared to 47.8 million the previous year. But the vast majority of the quitters didn’t leave the workforce — they just moved on to positions that paid better and/or were more suited to their lifestyles.

Now, though, with nationwide unemployment at 3.8%, one of the lowest rates of the century, the trend is reversing. Nationwide quit rates fell by 11.54% between July 2022 and July of this year, according to a study by the résumé-building side ResumeBlaze, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Quit rates are the number of job resignations during each entire month as a percentage of employment.)

And in some states, the rate fell considerably further than the national average. The study reveals that over that same 12-month period, the quit rate in Massachusetts plummeted by a dramatic 48%. Missouri came next, with a 32.25% decline, followed closely by Kansas, at 32.26%.

“With Americans becoming more settled in new careers and employers maintaining flexibility with remote working options,” says Darren Shafae, founder and lead developer at ResumeBlaze, “it’s interesting to see quit rates returning to pre-pandemic levels as the job market continues to cool across the nation.”

States With the Fastest-Falling Quit Rates