The Big Quit is the informal name for the unusually high number of workers who voluntarily left their jobs in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in 2021 and 2022. It is also known as the Great Resignation. The term describes a labor-market pattern rather than a coordinated movement or an official employment category. Some people who resigned moved to new jobs, while others took time away from paid work or changed their work arrangements. The label refers to voluntary departures, not layoffs or all forms of job loss. It also does not mean that every worker who quit left the workforce, or that the same factors drove every resignation.
Table of Contents
- How Is the Big Quit Measured?
- Why Did Workers Leave Their Jobs?
- What Did Quitting Mean for Workers?
- How Can Employers Respond to Elevated Turnover?
- Did the Big Quit End?
- How Does the Big Quit Relate to Contingent Workforce Management?
How Is the Big Quit Measured?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks quits through its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, known as JOLTS. The monthly quits rate is the number of voluntary departures during the month expressed as a percentage of employment. This rate helps compare labor turnover across industries and time periods without relying only on raw totals.
JOLTS counts a quit when an employee leaves voluntarily. Its definition excludes retirements and transfers to another location within the same organization. Those are recorded as other separations. Layoffs and discharges are counted separately because they are initiated by the employer. These distinctions matter when interpreting workforce data: an increase in all departures does not necessarily mean more employees chose to resign. The BLS explains the categories in its JOLTS definitions and frequently asked questions.
Quits are departure events rather than a count of unique people. If someone resigns from one job and later resigns from another, both events may be counted. For an employer, a national rate is useful context but cannot diagnose turnover on its own. Compare the organization’s voluntary departure rate over time and against a relevant industry measure.
Why Did Workers Leave Their Jobs?
There was no single explanation for the Big Quit. Workers weighed their pay and prospects alongside the day-to-day experience of work. In a Pew Research Center survey of people who quit a job in 2021, 63% said low pay was a reason and an equal share cited a lack of advancement opportunities. Feeling disrespected was a reason for 57%. Respondents could choose more than one reason, so these findings show overlapping concerns rather than separate groups. Pew’s survey findings on reasons for quitting also describe concerns involving benefits and scheduling flexibility.
Work and personal circumstances shaped decisions too. Childcare responsibilities or a schedule that left little control over working hours could make a job difficult to sustain. Those issues are not automatically solved by remote work. A worker in a role that requires an on-site presence may value predictable shifts or the ability to swap hours instead. A useful discussion of work-life balance considers how a job fits a person’s responsibilities and well-being in practice.
For employers, the practical point is to investigate the specific reason behind a departure instead of assuming that one change will address every concern. A pay adjustment may not resolve unclear promotion paths or disrespectful treatment. The right response depends on what workers in a particular role or team experience.
What Did Quitting Mean for Workers?
Resigning describes a worker’s decision to end a particular employment relationship. It does not tell you whether that person already has another offer, plans to search, or intends to pause paid work. Some people who left during the Big Quit changed employers or occupations. Others left work for a period. The trend therefore cannot be reduced to a story of workers abandoning employment.
It is also different from “quiet quitting,” a popular phrase for staying in a job while limiting work to the responsibilities expected of the role. The Big Quit concerns actual departures. Keeping these terms distinct helps employers avoid confusing a change in employee engagement with a resignation.
For an individual considering a move, comparing jobs means looking beyond the advertised pay. Consider whether the schedule is workable and whether the new role offers clear opportunities to grow. Check whether flexibility is formalized in a remote work policy or depends on an informal assurance. Workers can also confirm the start date and when benefits begin so they understand the practical effect of a transition or employment gap.
How Can Employers Respond to Elevated Turnover?
Start by separating voluntary resignations from layoffs and other departures. Then look for patterns by team, role, location or length of service. Exit conversations can provide useful detail, but compare them with feedback from current workers too. If several people in one group describe the same problem, that may call for a different response than concerns appearing across the organization.
Match any action to the issue identified. Employers might review how pay decisions are explained or make advancement requirements easier to understand. If the problem is schedule control, assess whether changes to flexible working arrangements fit the work. Supportive management and meaningful employee recognition programs may also matter, but neither should be treated as a substitute for addressing pay, workload or working conditions.
Set a baseline before making changes and review the results afterward. Track voluntary departures alongside feedback from people who stay. Consider how long it takes to recruit and prepare a replacement, including the time required for onboarding. The goal is to understand and reduce avoidable turnover, not to prevent every resignation. Workers may leave for personal reasons or opportunities an employer cannot control.
Did the Big Quit End?
The Big Quit is a name for a period of unusually high turnover, not a permanent condition or an official labor-market status. BLS data show that annual quits totaled 50.5 million in 2022 and 44.4 million in 2023. The lower 2023 total marked a decline from the previous year, though it did not mean voluntary turnover had stopped. See the BLS analysis of quits as the labor market cooled in 2023.
There is no official threshold for deciding when the Big Quit began or ended. The label is most useful as historical context. To understand conditions at a particular time, use labor-market data for that period and consider differences by industry. Older peak-period statistics should not be presented as if they describe today’s labor market.
A falling quits rate also cannot, by itself, show whether workers are satisfied. People may stay because of limited alternatives or because leaving is financially difficult. Employers can learn more by asking what supports employees’ decision to stay and what might prompt them to look elsewhere.
How Does the Big Quit Relate to Contingent Workforce Management?
A resignation can leave a gap in a team’s capacity while an employer recruits for a permanent role. A contingent assignment may provide temporary coverage when the work has a defined scope and can be handed over or learned in the available time. It is not an automatic replacement for every departing employee. If repeated turnover points to an unresolved workplace problem, temporary staffing alone will not address its cause.
Before arranging coverage, identify which work must continue and who will direct it. Set expectations for the assignment’s purpose and anticipated duration. Plan access to systems and allow for knowledge transfer where possible. These steps help clarify whether temporary support can realistically relieve pressure or whether it would add supervision and training demands to an already stretched team.
In contingent workforce management, TCWGlobal’s services may apply to employment administration for a temporary assignment. For organizations using contingent workers, the program should make clear who handles onboarding and payroll tasks and how assignment changes are managed. A temporary role works best as a response to a specific operational need while the organization continues examining why employees are leaving.
