When a worker leaves a job, the monthly JOLTS report records the departure according to how it happened. A resignation is generally a quit; an employer’s dismissal or layoff is counted as a layoff or discharge; retirement and certain other events go into a separate category. Together, those categories make total separations. The distinction matters because the figures describe changes on employer payrolls, not a head count of everyone who is out of work or a verdict on what any one worker experienced.
A departure has a category
JOLTS, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, counts separations during the month. The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines total separations as the sum of quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations. In August 2026, the latest available report on November 1, total separations were 5.1 million, including 3.1 million quits and 1.6 million layoffs and discharges. Other separations were 363,000. These are monthly estimates, and the July figures were revised when additional reports arrived. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Imagine, hypothetically, one worker who resigns to take a different job and another whose employer dismisses them. The first departure would generally be a quit because the employee initiated it. The second would be a layoff or discharge because the employer initiated it. The category identifies the type of payroll event; it does not state whether the departing worker immediately found another job, received a particular benefit, or experienced the departure as welcome or harmful.
Quits are usually voluntary
BLS describes quits as generally voluntary separations initiated by employees. Retirements and transfers to another location within the same firm are exceptions: they are not counted as quits. The quits rate can serve as a measure of workers’ willingness or ability to leave jobs, but it is an aggregate indicator. It cannot establish why a particular person left or whether that person had another position lined up. Bureau of Labor Statistics
A worker might quit to accept a different job, leave for personal reasons, or make another choice. JOLTS counts the voluntary departure without supplying a complete narrative of the decision. It also counts all qualifying departures at covered establishments across the month, so a rising or falling total is about the flow of payroll exits, not a direct measure of job satisfaction.
Layoffs and discharges begin with the employer
Layoffs and discharges are involuntary separations initiated by the employer. The category includes layoffs with no intent to rehire, formal suspensions from pay status lasting or expected to last more than seven days, and discharges connected to closings, downsizing, mergers, firings or other causes. Seasonal employee terminations are included whether or not the worker is expected back next season. Bureau of Labor Statistics
That broad category combines different employer actions. It does not, by itself, distinguish a business closing from an individual firing in the headline total. Nor does the count say how long affected workers remain without work. It shows how many separations employers reported in that category during the month, as estimated by the survey.
Other separations and the boundary of the measure
Other separations include retirement, death, disability and transfers to another location of the same firm. Transfers within the same establishment are excluded from separations. JOLTS covers private nonfarm establishments and civilian federal, state and local government entities in the 50 states and the District of Columbia; it counts payroll changes during the month. Openings, by contrast, are positions open on the last business day. Bureau of Labor Statistics
A payroll exit is not the same thing as unemployment. The Current Population Survey classifies people as unemployed when they have no job, have actively looked for work in the prior four weeks, and are available; people expecting recall from temporary layoff can qualify without an active search. A person who quits and starts another job can be counted as a quit in JOLTS while remaining employed in the household survey. Someone dismissed who is not searching or available may not be counted as unemployed. The measures answer different questions: one tracks employer payroll flows, the other people’s labor-force status. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Sources & further reading
- August 2026 job openings and labor turnover ↗Bureau of Labor Statistics
- How the government measures unemployment ↗Bureau of Labor Statistics
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