The number of U.S. workers who quit their jobs fell to the lowest level in more than three years, according to the latest turnover data, signaling that workers are more cautious in a cooling labor market.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that quits declined to 3.47 million in November 2023, the last month of recorded data. The quits rate, which measures people who voluntarily leave their jobs as a share of total employment, dropped to its lowest point since September 2020.

The No. 1 reason for this is fewer opportunities.

“Fewer workers are quitting their jobs because fewer employers are hiring,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. “Quits are a very reliable measure of how much opportunity there is in the labor market.”

Job vacancies fell to 8.7 million in November from over 10.7 million a year earlier, and hiring declined to the lowest level since the pandemic-driven freefall in April 2020.

“The hiring rate has steadily declined from 4.6 percent in November 2021 to 3.5 percent in November 2023,” Pollak said. “That’s well below the average 2019 rate of 3.9 percent. In fact, it’s the lowest rate since 2014.”

Available jobs still outnumber the 6.3 million Americans who are counted as unemployed and looking for work. But workers with jobs are evidently cautious.

“They read the headlines about all the layoffs,” said Andrew Flowers, lead labor economist at Appcast. “Even though unemployment is low and job growth has been steady, workers believe there is a potential for recession. Especially white-collar workers. The media has been talking about it nonstop for the past year.”

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