Fewer people job jump as white collar job growth stagnates

White collar job growth remains slow as Americans stay put in their jobs

What you probably already know: New data out from the Labor Department on Wednesday shows that Americans are quitting their jobs a lot less than they have been in recent years. U.S. workers quit 39.6 million jobs last year, which is down 11% from the previous year and down 22% from 2022. Job growth has been fairly steady but people simply aren’t jumping around as much as they were during the pandemic. Hiring has also slowed, though, and people started 66 million new jobs last year, compared to 71 million in 2023.

Why? The office job market is the toughest right now, as the tech companies have remained slow to restart hiring processes after cutting thousands of jobs over the last two years. As a result, law and accounting firms and consulting groups have also slowed hiring. The job growth the U.S. is seeing is mostly in health care and hospitality. With the Fed pausing rate cuts last week, it’s unlikely that there will be significant changes to this trend. Trump’s wild executive orders and tariffs are also spooking markets and causing companies to pause as they evaluate what this will mean for their bottom lines.

What it means: Companies that are hiring right now are typically filling technical jobs like data scientists and AI researchers, and slowing down hiring for business positions. That means more people are jockeying internally for promotions and seeking opportunities in their existing positions than looking externally for new jobs. That’s likely to make every promotion harder to get and create a workforce that will be ready to jump when the market opens up again.

What happens now? Many companies are in “wait and see” mode right now as the massive cuts to federal programs and jobs are likely to have a ripple effect on the U.S. economy. Many expect this will take some time, but The Hill called it “a dangerous, slow-moving disaster” that will really hit in October, when everyone who agreed to the buyout will step away from their jobs and paralyze essential services nation-wide. In addition to the danger this poses for national security, it will also mean regulatory guidance will be slow, permitting processes will be even slower, and projects are likely to get stuck in bureaucratic bottlenecks.