U.S. Quit Rate Falls Below 2% for Eighth Month Amid Rising Office Mandates and Benefit Cuts

U.S. employers have intensified mandates for office attendance and reduced employee perks as voluntary job quits declined sharply, signaling a shift in workplace dynamics. During the peak of the Great Resignation in November 2021, 4.5 million workers left their jobs voluntarily.

As of last month, that number was about 3 million as employees hesitated to quit at a time when job searches can drag on for months.

The overall quit rate has remained below 2% for eight consecutive months. Workers' optimism about finding new employment has sunk below levels seen during the 2020 pandemic, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The bank's data showed workers were less optimistic about job prospects today than in 2020, with the average worker estimating less than a 50% chance of securing a job in the current economy.

A January survey by MyPerfectResume of 1,000 adults revealed only 7% of employees would quit over a mandatory return-to-office policy, a steep drop from 51% who said the same in January 2025.

More than 70% of workers predicted they would have the same or less bargaining power to advocate for flexible work policies in 2026 compared to 2025. 'The era of employee leverage has ended,' Jasmine Escalera, a career expert at MyPerfectResume, said in a statement.

A report from July by commercial real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (JLL) found that Fortune 100 companies are forcing employees to work from the office an average of 3.8 days per workweek, compared with 2.6 days in 2023. Some employers have gone even further, forcing employees to come into the office full-time and doing away with the flexible work policies of the pandemic era.

One such company announced to U.S. employees in a companywide memo in December that they would need to work from the office five days a week. Parent company Meta has required employees to come into the office three days a week since 2023. Automaker Stellantis started requiring workers to come into the office five days a week starting last month.

Meanwhile, a home improvement retailer in January announced a five-day return to office for employees starting earlier this month, at the same time it announced layoffs. Even Microsoft, which, after the pandemic, instituted a flexible work policy that allowed most employees to work less than 50% of the week remotely without needing manager approval, began requiring their workers in the Puget Sound region to come into the office three days a week starting in February.

Beyond office policies, companies have trimmed benefits and adjusted incentives.

In February, the retailer imposed stricter requirements for employee bonuses. A manager must now reach at least 95% of their store’s sales goal to qualify for a bonus, up from 90% previously. At the same time, the retailer cut the amount paid out to those who reach only the minimum threshold.

Those managers whose stores reached 95% of their sales goal, and no more, will receive 25% of their target bonus, down from 50% before. The changes come as the retailer fell short of analyst expectations with sales down year over year.

A technology company has reportedly scaled back some perks for workers in recent years. Some of these changes include eliminating free laundry and dry cleaning as well as pushing back the time dinner is served in the office, so employees have to stay later to take advantage of it.

An investment bank cut its free breakfast and lunch options, according to the Wall Street Journal. A Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom advised workers last month against quitting without another job secured.

'You don’t want to quit a job to find that what you thought would be easy—getting another job—turns out to be a massive struggle,' Bloom told Fortune. AI adoption is saving employees up to an hour per day, according to Goldman Sachs, though companies often assign additional tasks to fill the time.

The average cost of employee turnover stands at six to nine months of a worker’s salary, per the Society for Human Resource Management.

These changes reflect a broader trend where employees, facing prolonged job searches, tolerate reductions in flexibility and benefits that might have prompted quits in prior years.