Defined the workforce
We analyzed U.S. Census Bureau Job-to-Job Flows data for 18.2 million college-educated workers ages 25 and older in ten established knowledge work sectors.
A national look at job-switching
The U.S. Cities Where Knowledge Workers Switch Jobs Most
The job market may have settled since the hiring frenzy of a few years ago, but changing employers remains a normal part of many knowledge workers’ careers. Where people live and the industries they work in can shape just how often those moves happen. Whether you’ve recently changed jobs or spent years behind the same desk, a workday break can take many forms—from a walk outside to a game of Classic Solitaire or FreeCell.
18.2Mcollege-educated workers
100largest U.S. metros
10knowledge work sectors
Charleston leads the country at 3.74% per quarter, while San Jose sits last at 2.11%.
It used to be the norm that a person would start a job at a company, work their way up, and eventually retire. In 2026, those days of sticking with one company are far less common. Nowadays, it’s considered normal for a person to change jobs every few years.
From higher pay to career advancement, people have many reasons to leave one company for another. In this study, we analyzed U.S. Census Bureau Job-to-Job Flows data for more than 18 million college-educated workers in ten established knowledge work sectors to learn where workers are switching jobs most.
We calculated the job switching rate between April 2025 and March 2026 across the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas and how the rate compares to years past. Additionally, we analyzed job-switching differences by sector and by sex. Read on to learn more about our findings.
Key Takeaways
Charleston, SC, knowledge workers switch jobs more than those in any other large U.S. metro (3.74% per quarter).
Women knowledge workers switch jobs more often than men in 81 of the 100 largest U.S. metros.
Knowledge workers in health care switch jobs twice as often as those in public administration (3.38% vs. 1.70% per quarter).
Where Knowledge Workers Are Most Likely to Change Jobs
The pace of job-switching isn't the same everywhere. A worker in one metro might change employers twice in the time it takes someone in another city to do it once, even when they hold similar jobs in the same field. To see where that movement is happening fastest, we ranked all 100 metros by the share of knowledge workers who moved directly to a new employer in a typical quarter.
Charleston, SC, leads all 100 metros with a job-switching rate of 3.74% per quarter, which works out to roughly 15 job changes for every 100 knowledge workers a year. Fayetteville, AR, sits just behind at 3.71%, followed by El Paso, TX, (3.70%), Boise, ID, (3.63%), and Sarasota, FL, (3.57%).
Colorado Springs, CO, (3.53%), Nashville, TN, (3.49%), Chattanooga, TN, (3.47%), Jacksonville, FL, (3.44%), and Greenville, SC, (3.42%) round out the top 10. Every metro in that top 10 sits in the South or Mountain West, and most of them are mid-sized markets rather than the big names you might expect. Nashville is the largest of the group, and it's the only one that ranks among the country's 40 biggest metros.
Florida places more metros in the top 25 than any other state, with eight. Sarasota and Jacksonville lead the way, followed by Deltona (3.40%), Tampa (3.39%), Lakeland (3.38%), Orlando (3.33%), Palm Bay (3.28%), and Cape Coral (3.27%).
Texas isn't far behind, putting El Paso, Austin (3.36%), San Antonio (3.34%), and Dallas (3.29%) in the top 20. Tennessee and the Carolinas fill in the rest of the pattern, adding Knoxville (3.24%), Memphis (3.23%), Charlotte (3.34%), Raleigh (3.27%), and Columbia (3.19%) to the metros already in the top 10.
At the other end of the list, workers in a handful of metros are staying put. San Jose, CA, has the lowest rate in the country at 2.11% per quarter, with Honolulu, HI, (2.13%) and Oxnard, CA, (2.17%) close behind. California shows up here more than anywhere else, as every one of its metros ranks in the bottom 30.
Mapping America's Most Restless Job Markets
Share of college-educated workers in ten established sectors who moved straight from one employer to another in a typical quarter
Circle size shows the number of knowledge workers in the metro50,000500,0002 million
Job-Switching Rate (% per Quarter)Under 2.502.50 to 2.792.80 to 3.093.10 to 3.393.40 and up
RankMetro AreaJob-Switching Rate (% per Quarter)
National rate: 2.77%
8
of the top 25 metros are in Florida, more than any other state.
4
Texas metros rank in the top 20: El Paso, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas.
42%
fewer job changes among knowledge workers than the workforce as a whole.
The Industries That Move Most and Least
After learning where workers move most, we wanted to know whether the field they work in matters just as much as the city. Some industries hand out new opportunities constantly, while others are built around long tenures and internal promotions. We compared job-switching rates across the ten sectors in our study to see how far apart they really are.
Health care and social assistance leads all ten sectors at 3.38% per quarter, with professional and technical services (3.31%) and wholesale trade (3.23%) right behind it. Public administration sits at the bottom at 1.70%, just below education (1.75%) and utilities (1.81%). Put another way, a health care worker changes employers about twice as often as someone working in public administration.
Those gaps held up almost everywhere we looked. Health care is the fastest-moving sector in 51 of the 100 metros, and education is the slowest in 57 of them. Public administration takes the slowest spot in another 30, which means those two sectors account for the stickiest jobs in 87 metros between them.
New York sets the low mark for the whole study. Public administration workers there switch jobs at 0.90% per quarter, the lowest rate of any sector in any metro we analyzed.
Which Knowledge Sectors Hold On to Their Workers
Job-switching rates for the ten knowledge work sectors in the study, across the 100 largest metros pooled
RankSectorJob-Switching Rate (% per Quarter)
All sectors: 2.77%
Knowledge workers in health care switch jobs twice as often as those in public administration.
The Pattern Holds Nationwide
Most Job-Switching
Health care and social assistance51 metros
Wholesale trade22 metros
Professional and technical services15 metros
Least Job-Switching
Education57 metros
Public administration30 metros
Utilities9 metros
How Job Switching Differs Between Men and Women
Career paths tend to look different for men and women, so we wanted to see whether that shows up in how often each group changes employers. The national numbers sit closer together than you might expect, but the pattern behind them turned out to be remarkably consistent from one metro to the next.
Women switch jobs more often than men in 81 of the 100 largest metros. The national gap is narrow, with women at 2.81% per quarter and men at 2.73%, but it shows up in metro after metro.
Tucson, AZ, has the widest gap in the country, where women switch jobs 18% more often than men (3.00% vs. 2.55%). Jackson, MS, (17%), Wichita, KS, (17%), Oklahoma City, OK, (14%), and Little Rock, AR, (14%) follow close behind.
El Paso runs the other direction. Men there switch jobs 14% more often than women (4.02% vs. 3.46%), and they switch more often than men in any other large metro.
The Metros with the Widest Gender Gaps
Women knowledge workers switch jobs more often than men in 81 of the 100 largest metros, though the national gap is narrow
MenWomenGap runs the other way
Metro AreaJob-Switching Rate (% per Quarter)Gap
Tucson, AZ
2.55%3.00%
Women +18%
Jackson, MS
2.73%3.20%
Women +17%
Wichita, KS
2.77%3.23%
Women +17%
Oklahoma City, OK
2.97%3.40%
Women +14%
Little Rock, AR
3.02%3.46%
Women +14%
El Paso, TX
4.02%3.46%
Men +14%
0%2.25%4.50%
81
of the 100 largest metros have women knowledge workers switching jobs more often than men.
4.02%
of El Paso men switch employers in a typical quarter, the highest rate for men in any large metro.
Job Switching Has Cooled in Every Major Metro
Job-switching looks different today than it did a few years ago. The stretch from 2021 to 2022 brought record movement across the country, and that window has since closed. We compared today's rates against that peak and against 2018–19, to see how much things have settled down.
Knowledge workers in all 100 of the largest metros switch jobs less often than they did in 2021–22, with rates falling 18% on average. San Jose, CA, has cooled the most at 36%, followed by Austin, TX, (35%), San Francisco, CA, (35%), Durham, NC, (34%), and Seattle, WA, (32%). Austin's drop stands out because of where it started, as workers there switched jobs more often than anywhere else in the country at the peak, at 5.16% per quarter, and the metro now sits 16th.
Not every market has slowed the same way. Tulsa, OK, has cooled the least of any metro, down just 2%, with El Paso, TX, (4%) and Bakersfield, CA, (6%) close behind. Stretching the comparison back further tells a similar story, as knowledge workers in 63 of the 100 metros switch jobs less often than they did in 2018–19, leaving 37 metros still running above their pre-pandemic pace. El Paso leads that group at 33% above where it was, the biggest increase in the country.
Job-Switching Measured Against 2018–19
Change in the job-switching rate compared with the two years before the pandemic
Recovery of the 100 Largest Metros and The Biggest Movers
63below 2018–19
37at or above 2018–19
Metro AreaSwitching LessSwitching More
El Paso, TX
33%
Knoxville, TN
13%
McAllen, TX
12%
Bakersfield, CA
10%
Jackson, MS
10%
San Jose, CA
35%
San Francisco, CA
27%
Minneapolis, MN
20%
Reno, NV
18%
Seattle, WA
18%
El Paso knowledge workers switch jobs 33% more often than they did before the pandemic, the biggest increase in the country. San Jose is down 35%, the biggest drop.
Where the numbers come from
In this study, we set out to learn where knowledge workers switch jobs most, using U.S. Census Bureau Job-to-Job Flows data covering April 2024 through March 2025.
Measured the moves
We calculated job-switching rates across the 100 largest U.S. metros from April 2024 through March 2025, counting workers who moved straight from one employer to another.
Compared against past years
Each metro was measured against the 2021–22 peak and against pre-pandemic 2018–19 levels.
Broke it out further
We also looked at how job-switching differs by sector and by sex.