Workers are leaving jobs at a slower pace than a year ago, and that changes the math on switching employers for more pay. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on September 29, 2026, in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for August, that the quits rate was 1.9 percent of employment, or 3.1 million people, while job openings stood at 7.1 million.
Quitting is usually a vote of confidence: people leave when they expect to land something better. A rate that sits below its level of a year earlier suggests fewer workers are making that bet.
The JOLTS numbers for August 2026
The BLS release reads, in its own words, that “the number and rate of quits were unchanged at 3.1 million and 1.9 percent, respectively, over the month.” Job openings were “little changed at 7.1 million and 4.3 percent.” Hires came in at 5.2 million, a rate of 3.3 percent. Layoffs and discharges were 1.6 million, or 1.0 percent, and total separations were 5.1 million, or 3.2 percent. The next JOLTS release, covering September, is scheduled for November 3, 2026.
The word “fallen” in the headline rests on the series history. BLS’s quits table shows the rate at 2.0 percent in August 2025, May 2026 and June 2026, then 1.9 percent in July and August 2026. The level of quits slipped from about 3.21 million in June to about 3.07 million in August. The drop is a tenth of a percentage point, not a collapse, and it should be read that way.
What 1.9% quits and 7.1 million openings imply for a raise
Of the 5.1 million separations in August, 3.1 million were quits, which is about 61 percent, and 1.6 million were layoffs and discharges, about 31 percent. Most people leaving jobs are still leaving on their own, and the pool of openings is large: 7.1 million vacancies stood against 5.2 million hires in the month, so employers had far more positions listed than they filled.
This release cannot say how much pay moves when someone switches, because JOLTS counts people and positions, not wages. For wages, the August Employment Situation report put average hourly earnings at $37.75, up 3.1 percent in twelve months.
Per 1,000 workers: 19 quits in August, 20 a year earlier
Rates are easier to grasp scaled down. A quits rate of 1.9 percent means roughly 19 of every 1,000 employed people left a job voluntarily in August, compared with 20 in August 2025. The difference is one person per 1,000, which is why the move is small even though the direction is down. Across the whole economy, 3.1 million quits in a single month adds up to roughly 37 million at that pace over twelve months, so churn remains large in absolute terms even at a lower rate.
The openings rate of 4.3 percent works the same way: about 43 of every 1,000 jobs, counting filled and vacant positions together, were open. The title’s phrase about less room to job-hop describes the quits side of that picture, fewer workers moving, rather than a shortage of postings.
A raise at 3.1% on a $52,000 salary
Consider a hypothetical worker earning $52,000 a year who stays put and receives a raise in line with that 3.1 percent trend. That is $1,612 more over the next year, or about $31 a week before taxes. If the same worker could instead move to a job paying 10 percent more, the raise would be $5,200, more than three times larger. That gap is the pull behind job-hopping, and a lower quits rate means fewer people are collecting it.
The cost side has shifted as well. With consumer prices up 3.4 percent over the twelve months through August, a 3.1 percent raise leaves purchasing power slightly lower. For a worker deciding whether to stay, a counteroffer from the current employer or a move across town to a competitor has to beat roughly 3.4 percent to come out ahead.
Layoffs are low, which is the other half of the story
Employers are not shedding workers in large numbers. A 1.0 percent layoff rate is modest, and weekly claims point the same way: the Labor Department’s weekly claims report from October 1 put initial claims for the week ending September 26 at 197,000, with a four-week average of 200,000. The jobs report showed unemployment at 4.1 percent in August.
The picture is of a labor market that is neither contracting nor churning. Workers who keep their jobs mostly keep them, and employers who post openings often leave them open. For a household weighing a job change, the August data show a market with plenty of postings but fewer people acting on them.
The next JOLTS release on November 3 will show whether September holds at 1.9 percent. The sourced reading today is the one BLS published on September 29: a 1.9 percent quits rate and 7.1 million job openings in August 2026.
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This article was prepared with AI assistance and checked against the BLS and Labor Department releases cited in it.
