A quarter of Americans left their job in the last 12 months

You’d think rising interest rates, a looming recession and job openings being at their lowest levels in two years might give people pause about leaving their current employer, but roughly one in four (27%) say they’ve left a job in the last 12 months, according to research from Finder.

Of those who said they left a job in the last 12 months, most left for other employment at 45%. However, a fair amount of those leaving their jobs said they were taking a career break (31%).

Related: Getting a personal loan after starting a new job

The percentage of those who left jobs either after finding a new job or taking a career break has increased over the last three iterations of Finder’s Consumer Confidence Index.

Men more likely to have left a job

Men are far more likely than women to say they left a job in the last 12 months, with 35% having left a job compared to 21% of women. Men (18%) are more than twice as likely as women (7%) to say they left for a new job.

The cost of starting anew

Being out of the workforce can also drastically impact your savings. The survey also found that a little over 1 in 10 (11%) said they would only be able to support themselves financially for a week should they find themselves out of work. In fact, the majority (a combined 57%) say their savings would run dry after just three months.

Those who said they took a career break or just quit don’t have a paycheck coming in the immediate future. Even those who said they started a new job would have had at least a little lag time between paychecks.

This is why it’s smart to have a plan before leaving a job. Build yourself a financial checklist before you take the plunge, which includes topping up your emergency fund, paying bills ahead of time and cashing out any unused vacation time.

If you’re looking to make ends meet and don’t have a nest egg built up either before leaving your current job or after starting your new one, you can always look at a personal loan as a lower interest option to racking up high-interest credit card debt.

• Methodology

  Finder’s Consumer Confidence Index is a nationally representative survey polling more than 6,000 Americans about household finances since October 2022.

  The April data is based on an online survey of 2,113 US adults commissioned by Finder and conducted by Qualtrics/SAP between April 11-20, 2023, with representative quotas for sex and age.

  We assume the 2,113 participants in our survey represent the US population of 259.2 million Americans who are at least 18 years old, according to the July 2022 US Census Bureau population estimate. This assumption is made at the 95% confidence level with a 2% margin of error.

  Our survey asked people whether they left a job in the last 12 months and for what reason.

  We define generations by birth year according to the Pew Research Center’s generational guidelines, though we’ve combined baby boomers and the Silent Generation into a single group for sampling ease:

  • Gen Z — any adults born post-1997
  • Millennials — 1981–1996
  • Gen X — 1965–1980
  • Baby boomers — anyone born pre-1964

  We define geographical regions as defined by the US Census Bureau.

Photo by Nick Dunlap on Unsplash