The Great Resignation continues along an historic path among all previously reported years of quits data reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics began reporting the number of U.S. workers who quit their jobs in December 2000, giving a trove of monthly data on the ebbs and flows of workers quitting.
Last year, an average of more than 3.98 million workers quit their jobs each month, meaning 2021 holds the highest average on record, topping the 2019 average of 3.5 million.
The year with the lowest monthly average is 2009, which saw around 1.75 million workers quit each month—less than half the 2021 average. 2010 and 2011 are the only other years with a monthly average below 2 million, highlighting the impact of the Great Recession on workers’ decisions to leave their jobs.
