--- url: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-leadership-burden-quits-vs-layoffs-by-trade/' title: 'The Leadership Burden of Letting People Go: In Construction, More Workers Were Let Go Than Quit in 2025. In Hotels and Restaurants, 3.8 Quit for Every One Let Go' author: name: Samantha Lankford url: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/author/sam/' date: '2026-11-06T10:30:00-05:00' modified: '2026-11-06T10:30:00-05:00' type: post summary: 'In 2025, construction let go 2.08% of its workers a month while 1.77% quit. Restaurants and hotels: 1.10% let go, 4.23% quit.' categories: - Blog Post image: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/founder-leadership-burden-quits-vs-layoffs-by-trade-hero.webp' published: true --- # The Leadership Burden of Letting People Go: In Construction, More Workers Were Let Go Than Quit in 2025. In Hotels and Restaurants, 3.8 Quit for Every One Let Go ![The Lonely Entrepreneur](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TLE_Logo_mobile-490W-26-26.png)Founder Data Report ![The Leadership Burden of Letting People Go: In Construction, More Workers Were Let Go Than Quit in 2025. In Hotels and Restaurants, 3.8 Quit for Every One Let Go](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/founder-leadership-burden-quits-vs-layoffs-by-trade-hero.webp) Founder Data Report # The Leadership Burden of Letting People Go: In Construction, More Workers Were Let Go Than Quit in 2025. In Hotels and Restaurants, 3.8 Quit for Every One Let Go By Michael Dermer • Updated November 6, 2026 Get clarity — download the free Entrepreneur Survival Guide Summary. [Download the Survival Guide →](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/esg-overview/?utm_source=blog-cta) Every departure is either somebody else’s decision or yours. Federal turnover data shows how that split runs by trade, and in three of them the employer’s decisions match or outnumber the employee’s. Quick Answer In 2025, U.S. construction employers let go an average of **2.08%** of their workers each month, while **1.77%** quit. In accommodation and food services the numbers ran the other way: 1.10% let go and 4.23% quit, or 3.8 quits for every layoff or discharge. Across all private employers it was 1.8 to 1. These are Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for employers of every size. There are two ways most people leave a job. They decide to go, or you decide for them. The first can sting. The second is a decision that lands on whoever runs the place, usually with a name and a family attached to it, and that weight is a real part of the leadership burden. How often you carry it depends heavily on what you do for a living. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes both rates every month for each major trade, and side by side they show very different jobs for the person in charge. The 30-second version - Quits for every layoff or discharge in 2025: 3.8 in accommodation and food services, 2.9 in health care, 1.8 across all private employers, 0.9 in construction, 0.6 in arts and recreation. - Three of 15 trades had a layoff rate above the quit rate for 2025: arts, construction and, barely, information. - Over ten years, quits beat layoffs in 118 of 120 months in restaurants and hotels, health care and retail. In construction it was 46. - Professional and business services fell from 2.1 in 2022 to 1.1 in 2025, its lowest of the ten years outside 2020. - These figures cover all employer sizes, and layoffs here include firings and the end of seasonal work. The survey does not say why trades differ. ## Whose decision was it? The split by trade Divide one rate by the other and you get a plain measure: how many people chose to leave for each one who was let go. Accommodation and food services leads at 3.8, followed by health care at 2.9 and retail at 2.4. At the other end, arts, entertainment and recreation reads 0.6 and construction 0.9. Information sits at 1.0, with its two rates only 0.03 of a point apart. The Data Quits for every layoff or discharge, by trade, 2025 Accommodation and food services3.8Health care and social assistance2.9Retail trade2.4Other services2.3Finance and insurance2.2Mining and logging2.0Private education1.9Real estate and rental1.9Wholesale trade1.9Manufacturing1.5Transportation, warehousing,utilities1.3Professional and business services1.1Information1.0Construction0.9Arts, entertainment, recreation0.6 Published quits rate divided by published layoffs and discharges rate, 2025 means. Bars on a 0 to 4.5 axis. Above 1.0, more people quit than were let go. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), by industry, not seasonally adjusted. Quits and layoffs-and-discharges rates, means of the 12 months of 2025. All establishment sizes. ## The same ratio can come from very different work The ratio hides the volume, so look at both rates. Finance and insurance reads 2.2, with the lowest layoff rate of the 15, 0.56%, and the lowest quit rate, 1.26%. Few goodbyes of either kind. Professional and business services has plenty of both: 2.33% quit and 2.04% let go, every month. Arts and recreation had the highest layoff rate, 3.77%, then construction at 2.08% and professional and business services. Restaurants and hotels had the highest quit rate at 4.23%, as they did in each of the ten years. More people choose to go there than in any other trade. On a payroll of 100 in construction, 2025’s averages work out to about two people let go and just under two quits every month. > In restaurants and hotels, more goodbyes are the worker’s call. In construction and the arts, more are the employer’s. The Data Monthly quit rate and layoff rate, eight trades, 2025 Accommodation and food services Quit4.23% Laid off or let go1.10% Health care and social assistance Quit2.02% Laid off or let go0.70% Retail trade Quit2.57% Laid off or let go1.05% Finance and insurance Quit1.26% Laid off or let go0.56% Professional and business services Quit2.33% Laid off or let go2.04% Information Quit1.28% Laid off or let go1.31% Construction Quit1.77% Laid off or let go2.08% Arts, entertainment, recreation Quit2.21% Laid off or let go3.77% Share of employment per month, 2025 means. Both bars on one scale, 0 to 5%. Eight of the 15 trades shown. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), by industry, not seasonally adjusted. Quits and layoffs-and-discharges rates, means of the 12 months of 2025. All establishment sizes. ## One year doesn’t explain it. Ten years do This is not a 2025 quirk. Of the 120 months from 2016 to 2025, the quit rate beat the layoff rate in 118 across all private employers. The two misses were both in 2020. Restaurants and hotels, health care and retail match that count. Construction managed 46 and arts 52. In both, the quit rate failed to beat the layoff rate in most months of the decade. BLS counts the end of seasonal work as a layoff, and these figures can’t separate it from firings. The Data Months out of 120 in which quits beat layoffs and discharges, 2016 to 2025 Accommodation and food services118Health care and social assistance118Retail trade118Manufacturing116Finance and insurance115Wholesale trade113Other services108Professional and business services108Real estate and rental106Private education105Transportation, warehousing,utilities103Mining and logging99Information89Arts, entertainment, recreation52Construction46 Count of 120 months where the published quits rate exceeded the published layoffs and discharges rate. Bars on a 0 to 120 axis. Monthly rates are published to one decimal, and ties count as not exceeding. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS, by industry, not seasonally adjusted, January 2016 to December 2025. Months in which the published quits rate exceeded the published layoffs and discharges rate. All establishment sizes. The balance moves, too. Across all private employers it read 1.9 in 2019, 2.9 in 2022 and 1.8 in 2025. Restaurants and hotels went from 3.2 to 5.9 and back to 3.8. In 2020 they read 0.7, when 6.61% of their workers were let go in an average month. Professional and business services has moved from 2.1 in 2022 to 1.1. If the people around you have stopped quitting, the share of departures that are your call goes up, even if you let go no more people than before. ## What to take from this if you run one First, know your own split. Count last year’s departures in two columns, theirs and yours, and set it against your trade. A restaurant with more layoffs than quits and a builder with more quits than layoffs are both telling you something worth asking about. Second, if your trade runs on the employer’s decision, treat that as part of the job, and prepare for it. Decide how you’ll handle the end of a season or a contract before the day arrives, and say it plainly at hiring. And don’t carry it alone. These are hard calls, and they go better when you’ve talked them through with someone who has made them and has no stake in the outcome. Limits worth holding. These rates cover **employers of every size**. JOLTS publishes no trade figures by size, so a small shop may run differently from its trade. Layoffs and discharges **include firings for cause and the end of seasonal work**, and they can’t be split out here. Quits exclude retirements. Each figure is a monthly average over 2025, and the survey **does not say why** trades differ or who was involved. The Data Where the numbers land 3.8 quits per layoff or discharge in accommodation and food services, 2025 0.9 quits per layoff or discharge in construction, 2025 3.77% of arts and recreation workers let go in an average month, highest of 15 trades 46 of 120 months since 2016 in which construction quits beat layoffs U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS, by industry, 2025 monthly means, not seasonally adjusted. ## Frequently Asked Questions Do more employees quit or get laid off? Across all private U.S. employers in 2025, more quit: an average of 2.21% of workers a month, against 1.25% laid off or discharged. That has held in 118 of the last 120 months. Which industries lay off the most workers? In 2025, arts, entertainment and recreation at 3.77% a month, construction at 2.08% and professional and business services at 2.04%. The figures include firings and the end of seasonal work. Which industries have the highest quit rate? Accommodation and food services, at 4.23% a month in 2025 and highest of the 15 trades in each year from 2016 to 2025. Retail was second in 2025 at 2.57%. Does this apply to small businesses? Not directly. JOLTS publishes trade figures for employers of all sizes and does not cross trade with size, so use these as a picture of your trade, not of firms your size. Where does the data come from? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, not seasonally adjusted, January 2016 to December 2025. Figures are means of monthly published rates. Keep reading - [The Leadership Burden Doesn’t Age Out: At Firms 11+ Years Old, 13.2% of Settled Workers’ Jobs End Each Quarter in Food and Lodging, 4.9% in Finance](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-leadership-burden-settled-workers-by-trade/) - [Workplaces With Fewer Than 10 Staff Had Their Lowest Quit Rate in Ten Years in 2025. So Far, 2026 Is Lower Still.](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-the-people-who-stayed/) - [The Founder’s Layoff: Leading Through the Hardest Decision You’ll Ever Make](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-layoffs/) Part of the entrepreneurial struggle: [Leadership Burden](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/entrepreneur-struggle/leadership/) ![The Lonely Entrepreneur](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TLE_Logo_mobile-490W-26-26.png) Published by **The Lonely Entrepreneur** — the community and coaching platform for entrepreneurs who are building alone. [lonelyentrepreneur.com](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/) This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial or legal advice.