The Great Hesitation: Job changers start staying put?

Amidst the strong labor market, job-to-job moves have moderated and the pay raises for moving jobs have dropped.

Headshot of Taylor Bowley

Taylor Bowley

Headshot of David Tinsley

David Tinsley

June 2024

Key takeaways

  • Bank of America internal data can help us understand what's happening beneath the surface of the still buoyant U.S. labor market. Focusing on job-to-job (J2J) moves, we find little sign of significant slowdown, and the rate of J2J moves is still above 2019 levels.
  • In looking across industry or incomes, we find little evidence of people leaving their current employment, which suggests no incipient rise in unemployment beneath the surface.
  • But the median pay raise people are receiving when changing jobs is dropping back. In fact, it's about half the amount that it was at the time of the "Great Resignation" and is below 2019 levels, currently. Middle- and higher-income cohorts have seen the biggest softening.

Read our full analysis for a more in-depth look at these trends.

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