If it feels like everyone around you is walking away from their job, you are not imagining it. Why are all my employees leaving is a question more…
If it feels like everyone around you is walking away from their job, you are not imagining it. Why are all my employees leaving is a question more managers are asking as the labor force participation rate drops to 61.5%, the lowest reading since March 2021 outside the pandemic years.
At a Glance
- About 1 million workers have left the labor force over the past year
- 720,000 people exited in June alone, according to Labor Department estimates
- The unemployment rate fell to 4.2% in June, but largely because fewer people are searching for work
- Participation among workers 55 and older hit a 21 year low of 37.1%
- Economists disagree on a single cause, pointing instead to a mix of factors
Why are all my employees leaving right now
There is no single villain here. Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Comerica Bank, points out that economic growth depends on two things: workers producing more per hour, and more people actually working. Productivity is holding up fine. The second piece, getting bodies into jobs, has stalled. That gap shows up directly in employer complaints about churn and unfilled roles, even as the overall jobless rate looks calm on paper.
Some of it traces back to older employees cashing out. Retirement age workers who watched their 401(k) balances climb during a strong stock market in 2026 may simply feel ready to step back. But that story only explains part of the picture, since participation among people 25 to 55, the core working age group, has also slipped.
Burnout after a brutal job search
Hiring was historically weak through 2025, and that left scars. ZipRecruiter economist Nicole Bechaud told USA TODAY that people who lost jobs a year ago, back when openings were scarce, are often still unemployed today, and many have simply stopped looking. Employers, she noted, tend to favor candidates who are currently employed or only recently out of work, which leaves long term jobseekers stuck on the outside.
Michele Evermore, a senior fellow at the National Employment Law Project, described the toll of repeated rejection after multiple interview rounds. She called landing a job in 2026
