Quits ran about 3.23 million in June 2026, against a peak of roughly 4.5 million in April 2022 and a 2019 average of about 3.51 million. Workers are leaving voluntarily less often than before the pandemic, which is the single clearest signal that leverage has shifted toward employers — and it matters to you even if you never intend to quit, because other people's quits create your openings.
Why quits beat every other signal
An opening can sit unfilled for months, or be posted speculatively, or exist because a policy requires external advertising. A quit is something a person actually did, at real personal risk, because they believed they had somewhere better to go.
That makes it a revealed judgment rather than an intention, and it is why it tracks worker confidence more closely than anything else published monthly.
Where the number sits now
Quits ran about 3.23 million in June 2026. The peak was roughly 4.5 million a month in April 2022 — the highest in the series — and the 2019 average was about 3.51 million.
So quits are down about 28 per cent from the peak and about 11 per cent below their pre-pandemic norm. The series trough was around 1.56 million in August 2009, which puts the current reading well clear of crisis territory. Subdued, not alarming.
Why this matters even if you never intend to quit
Most openings are created by somebody leaving. Fewer quits means fewer vacancies for everyone else, so other people’s decisions directly determine how many doors exist for you.
It also changes how employers behave toward the people they already have. When replacement pressure is low, counter-offers get rarer, internal raises get harder to justify, and the cost of losing you — which is what your pay is partly priced against — falls.
The self-reinforcing part
Fewer quits produce fewer openings, which give the people who remain less reason to leave, which produces fewer quits. That loop is why frozen markets last longer than the underlying conditions would suggest, and why they thaw gradually rather than snapping back.
It also means the turning point is visible early if you watch the right series. Quits rising in your industry is the first sign that the loop is breaking, and it happens before openings respond.
Read your own industry, never the total
The differences between industries are structural rather than cyclical. Accommodation and food service run high quits permanently because the work is easy to leave and easy to replace. Government runs low because it is neither.
Comparing your industry against the national figure tells you almost nothing. Comparing it against its own level two years ago tells you whether your position is improving.
What it cannot tell you
Anything about your specific occupation or your metro. And it is a description of conditions that already happened rather than a forecast — useful for deciding whether now is a reasonable moment, useless for predicting next quarter.
It also does not distinguish a quit into a better job from a quit out of the workforce entirely, and those mean opposite things about confidence.
Using it before you start looking
Pull the quits series for your industry and look at two years. Rising means the market is thawing, evidence will carry further in a negotiation, and processes will move faster. Falling means budget a longer search and expect less movement on offers.
Then check it again in three months rather than every week. This series moves slowly and watching it closely is a way of feeling productive without applying to anything.
What a low quits environment does to negotiation
Your pay is partly priced against the cost of losing you. When few people are leaving, that cost is low, and every conversation about money happens against that backdrop whether or not anybody says so.
This does not make negotiation pointless — it changes what works. Arguments based on market comparison land weakly when the employer knows the market is not moving. Arguments based on what you specifically do, and what replacing that would cost in months rather than dollars, land better because they are about you rather than about conditions.
The one advantage of a frozen market
Everyone else is stuck too, which means less internal competition for the good work. When nobody is leaving, nobody new is arriving either, and the people who quietly take on the interesting problems during a slow period are the ones with a much stronger case when it thaws.
That is the realistic move when the numbers say waiting. Not waiting passively — building the evidence that will matter in a market where evidence starts working again.
Common questions
What is the quits level now?
About 3.23 million in June 2026, against a 2022 peak near 4.5 million and a 2019 average of about 3.51 million.
Why do quits matter if I am not quitting?
Because most openings are created by somebody leaving. Fewer quits means fewer vacancies for everyone else.
Why is it a better signal than openings?
A quit is an action taken at personal risk rather than an intention. It reveals what workers actually believe about their prospects.
Are quits at crisis levels?
No. The series trough was about 1.56 million in August 2009, so the current reading is subdued rather than severe.
Should I use the national figure?
No. Compare your own industry with its own history, since structural quit levels differ enormously between industries.
What is the quits level now?
About 3.23 million in June 2026, down roughly 28 per cent from the April 2022 peak near 4.5 million and about 11 per cent below the 2019 average of 3.51 million.
Why do quits matter if I am not quitting?
Most openings are created by somebody leaving, so other people's decisions determine how many doors exist for you — and low replacement pressure weakens counter-offers and internal raises.
What is the earliest sign a frozen market is thawing?
Quits rising in your industry. That happens before openings respond, because the loop breaks at the point people start believing they can move.