The most people are leaving their jobs in these states

Alaska, Montana and Wyoming are leading the way in most job resignations, data show.

by Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech | Jul. 22, 2022

Story at a glance

Updated data from Wallet Hub shows that Alaska is the state with the most job resignations over the past 12 months.

Montana and Wyoming came in a close second and third.

Experts believe that the pandemic-related shift to remote work has played a role in the job resignations.

Workers in Alaska, Montana and Wyoming are resigning at the highest rate in the country, according to new data from Wallet Hub.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began and then ebbed, a wave of workers have chosen to leave their jobs as Americans’ priorities and living situations shifted. That trend shows no signs of slowing down, with a recent report from McKinsey finding that 40 percent of workers are still planning on leaving their current place of employment.

“The experience of the pandemic, especially lay-offs and early retirements, have undoubtedly contributed to the current tightness in the labor market,” Joshua L. Rosenbloom, professor of economics at Iowa State University,” said in a statement.

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“Remote work and the other disruptions caused by the pandemic have likely also contributed to many people reassessing their preferences for where they live and how they work, which has led to more turnover too.”

Wallet Hub researchers analyzed U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic data on all 50 states and Washington, D.C., to determine what percentage of each area’s workforce resigned last month and over the past year.

With that data, researchers ranked each state based on how much of the labor force has resigned. Alaska topped the list with a resignation rate of 4.18 percent over the last 12 months and 4.7 percent last month.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey had the lowest resignation rates. But none could match Washington, D.C.’s low resignation rate of 1.80 percent last month and 1.93 percent over the past year.

Here are the 10 states with the highest resignation rates: