The State Where the Most People Are Quitting Their Jobs

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Nov 7, 12:00PM EST

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The State Where the Most People Are Quitting Their Jobs — © Joe Raedle / Getty Images News via Getty Images

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released the August State Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, which tracks job openings, hire rates, layoffs, and what it terms as “quits” — employees who leave voluntarily. The state where the most people are quitting their jobs is Kentucky.

People considered as “quits” leave their jobs on their own accord and not because of layoffs. Quits do not include retirements or transfers to other locations. The BLS reports on both the total number of people who quit by state and as a percentage of total employment in each state.

To find the state where most people are quitting their jobs, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the BLS report State Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary for August, the most recent available. We included the quit rate — the number of people quitting during the month as a percent of total employment — for August, the increase in quit rate from July to August, and the change in the number of quits from July to August.

The job market has been different in the past year than almost any year before it. Millions of job openings have gone unfilled. That number has risen into the hundreds of thousands in some larger states, based on population, causing an imbalance that has made it harder for companies to find people that they need to operate. CNBC recently pointed out, “Employers in the U.S. face an interesting challenge ahead – how to fill nearly 10 million job openings with about a million fewer workers than there are positions available.”

The BLS reports that quit rates rose (significantly) in 14 states in August. The quit rate rose by 0.2 percentage points nationwide.

The increase in quit rate was much higher in several states. The highest level was Kentucky, where the rate rose 1.4 percentage points to 4.5%. It was followed by Idaho, where the quit rate increased by 1.1 percentage to 4.1%. Georgia, however, had a higher quit rate in August at 4.2%. (These are the 25 highest paying jobs in America.)

As for the number of quits, the BLS reports that the number rose (significantly) in also 14 states in August. The states with the highest figures were Georgia (35,000), Illinois (32,000), and Kentucky (26,000). The national total increased by 242,000. (These are the 25 cities with the highest paying jobs.)

While there is no uniform reason for high quit rates, one economist offered an opinion. Ben Ayers, a senior economist at Nationwide, commented to the Washington Post on the long-term labor trend: “The downside is there are many workers that won’t come back in. And long term you can’t sustain a labor market that’s as tight as it is right now.”

In addition to the many people who have quit their jobs who might never come back, millions of people have retired permanently, in many cases because of the COVID-19 pandemic. If this is true, the labor imbalance could last a very long time.

Click here to see the state where the most people are quitting their jobs

15. Texas
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.2 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 3.0%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 19,000 (not significant)

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14. Massachusetts
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.3 ppt (not significant)
> Pct. quits August: 2.5%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 10,000

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12. Virginia
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.4 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 2.9%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 14,000

12. Indiana
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.4 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 3.6%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 11,000

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10. Oregon
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.5 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 3.1%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 9,000

10. New Mexico
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.5 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 3.2%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 4,000

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9. Illinois
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.6 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 3.5%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 32,000

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8. Wisconsin
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.7 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 3.4%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 20,000

5. Mississippi
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.8 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 3.4%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 9,000

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5. Tennessee
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.8 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 3.4%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 23,000

5. Georgia
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.8 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 4.2%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 35,000

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3. South Dakota
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.9 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 3.4%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 4,000

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3. Iowa
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 0.9 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 3.6%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 14,000

2. Idaho
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 1.1 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 4.1%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 8,000

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1. Kentucky
> Increase in quit rate Aug/July: 1.4 ppt
> Pct. quits August: 4.5%
> Change in number of quits Aug/July: 26,000

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.