I pulled the official filings to ask who gets paid when the vendor copy says workers hold all the leverage. The documentation in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey and the Employment Situation news release answers it: employers profit, because this dark red quits rate line shows a long decline that caps your bargaining power.

Line chart: The quits rate is how loudly workers think they can leave (August 2026 data)
Source: official public data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (weekly layoff claims from the Employment and Training Administration). Chart drawn by the PorkiMail data desk.

Key takeaways

  • The dark red line covers 60 monthly readings from August 2021 to July 2026, falling from 2.8 to 1.9.
  • The rate peaked at 3 in November 2021, a high-water mark for job seeker confidence.
  • The series hit a low of 1.9 in November 2024, signaling diminished worker leverage.
  • Over the last four readings, it moved roughly flat at 1.9, proving employer control is entrenched.

What the terms mean

  • Quits rate: The share of total employed people who voluntarily walk away from their jobs each month.
  • Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey: The program counting open roles, published monthly in the JOLTS news release.
  • Employment Situation: The primary government report, issued as the Employment Situation news release, that counts national job creation.
  • U.S. Economy at a Glance: The U.S. Economy at a Glance page is a dashboard summarizing major labor statistics.

What to watch next

A quits rate that keeps easing is workers deciding the grass is not greener, signaling that employers have locked down the leverage.