USA | Hospitality and foodservice employees have quit their jobs at a higher rate than in any other sector of the US economy.
Workers in the U.S. hospitality industry have quit their jobs at a higher rate than employees in any other sector of the economy, according to a new OysterLink analysis of Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) data released this week.
The latest Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey (JOLTS) shows the quit rate for accommodation and food services reached 4.3 percent in March 2026, the highest among all industries tracked by the BLS and nearly double the private-sector average of 2.2 percent.
Importantly, most hospitality departures are voluntary. Roughly three-quarters of all separations in the sector are workers choosing to leave, while layoffs remain stable at 1.3 percent, matching the national average. The data suggests the industry's turnover problem is being driven less by employer cuts and more by workers actively walking away.
No other major industry comes close. Retail trade, the second-highest sector, recorded a 3.1 percent quit rate. Healthcare stood at 1.9 percent, professional and business services at 2.0 percent, manufacturing at 1.4 percent, finance at 1.2 percent, and government at just 0.7 percent.
"Hospitality is still hiring aggressively, but it's not paying more for it. That's the core tension in the data right now," said Milos Eric, General Manager at OysterLink.
OysterLink's own hiring data reflects the scale of the issue. The platform tracked 166,770 hospitality job postings across 707 U.S. cities during Q1 2026, including more than 127,000 entry-level openings. A significant portion of those listings is believed to represent replacement hiring rather than newly created positions.
The sector's hiring rate was 6.2 percent in March, which was also the highest among all industries and appears closely tied to the industry's elevated quit rate. Operators are hiring aggressively because they are continuously replacing workers who leave.
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