Western states had the highest average quit rates in March 2021. A woman, holding an unemployment application, speaks with an unseen state worker via intercom outside this state WIN job centre, April 29, 2020, in Canton, Miss. Americans quit jobs at record rates throughout the first months of 2021, according to a new report.

The national quit rate, the number of jobs quit as a percentage of total employment, reached 2.8% in April of this year, the highest of any year on record since the Bureau of Labour Statistics began collecting the data in 2001. From January 2010 to January 2020, the national monthly average quit rate sat between 1.3% and 2.4%. Western states had the highest average quit rates in March at 2.83%, followed closely by Southern states at 2.8%.

Alaska, Mississippi, Kentucky and Wyoming had the highest quit rates in March, while New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. had the lowest. Industries with lower average wages typically have higher quit rates, according to the analysis. The leisure and hospitality sector had the highest quit rate in May 2021, at 5.3% overall, while government, information and financial activities had the lowest quit rates. During the pandemic, jobs were scarce and unemployment skyrocketed to a record-breaking high of 14.8% in April, 2020. At the same time, the quit rate dropped significantly as people clung to any source of income available. But even as the quit rate shot up in April of this year, unemployment still remained higher than it was pre-pandemic.

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