From Great Resignation to Great Reshuffling

Where in the economy did all these job changes take place?

Four industries experienced the largest number of job-to-job transitions in 2021 (Figure 1): Administrative and Support Services; Food Services and Drinking Places; Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services; and Ambulatory Health Care Services. A job transition for workers in these industries often involved a change in industry subsector.

For example, when the pandemic hit in March 2020, many bars and restaurants shuttered leading to a major outflow of workers from Food Services and Drinking Places. But outflows declined rapidly in 2021 and 2022 as establishments began to reopen. Other industries affected by the pandemic also experienced a brief drop in 2020 but recovered in 2021 as safety measures eased.

The new data provide a window into longer-term trends, too, showing for instance that workers in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industry were more likely to shift to jobs within their subsector than to one in another industry.

The share of people who switched jobs in that industry to go to a different one declined to less than 60% in 2022 from 65% in 2005.

The new J2J Job Flows detailed industry tables tell us where workers who left one industry subsector went (Table 1).

For example, the Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector was the top destination of workers who left Administrative and Support Services jobs in 2021, accounting for 6.4% of all job-to-job flows, up slightly from 6.0% in 2019.

The Administrative and Support Services industry was the most common destination of workers who left Food and Drinking Places; Professional and Technical Services; Specialty Trade Contractors; and Nursing and Residential Care Facilities.

The new J2J data allows users to calculate the back-and-forth flow of jobs between industries.

For example, while job outflow rates in the Food and Drinking Places industry have now returned to pre-COVID rates, the recently released stats detail where exiting workers went and new ones came from.

The share of workers who switched from jobs in the Food Service and Drinking Places sector to ones in Administrative and Support Services, for instance, declined from 8.4% in 2019 to 6.9% in 2021 (Table 1).

Figure 2 illustrates that workers who left this industry in 2021 were more likely than they were in 2019 to accept jobs in the General Merchandise Retailers or Food and Beverage Stores.

Download the LEHD Job-to-Job Flows research release to access all NAICS 3-digit industry tabulations. Regular production J2J Flows data are also available for download. An easy-to-use summary of the top origin and destination subsectors is also available.