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June 2022
With a record number of job openings in recent months, employers facing increased competition for top talent have begun offering higher pay, increased benefits, and greater flexibility to attract qualified applicants.
These incentives have resulted in millions of people thinking about quitting their current job for better pay, a new career, or the ability to work from home.
But the number of people thinking about changing jobs varies by state. Wealthtender conducted research to rank the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on a review of online search terms frequently used by people ready to leave their current job for greener pastures.
Main Findings
A higher Job Search Score in the table below indicates a greater percentage of residents in a particular state looking for a new job compared to a state with a lower score.
With a Job Search Score of 88.80, Mississippi ranks highest with the greatest percentage of its population interested in leaving their current employer to start a new job than any other state. On the other hand, people living in Washington, D.C. appear to be most satisfied in their current roles.
wdt_ID | Rank | State | Job Search Score |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Mississippi | 88.80 |
2 | 2 | Georgia | 79.95 |
3 | 3 | Montana | 77.00 |
4 | 4 | South Carolina | 76.90 |
5 | 5 | North Carolina | 76.50 |
6 | 6 | Arkansas | 76.45 |
7 | 7 | Colorado | 76.25 |
8 | 8 | Michigan | 76.05 |
9 | 9 | Rhode Island | 75.85 |
10 | 10 | Tennessee | 75.65 |
11 | 11 | Arizona | 75.30 |
12 | 12 | Indiana | 74.85 |
13 | 13 | Nevada | 74.65 |
14 | 14 | Florida | 74.10 |
15 | 15 | Iowa | 73.60 |
16 | 16 | Ohio | 73.10 |
17 | 17 | Alabama | 72.95 |
18 | 18 | Missouri | 72.95 |
19 | 19 | Kentucky | 72.50 |
20 | 20 | Oklahoma | 71.00 |
21 | 21 | Wisconsin | 70.85 |
22 | 22 | Idaho | 70.15 |
23 | 23 | Pennsylvania | 69.60 |
24 | 24 | Minnesota | 68.45 |
25 | 25 | Texas | 68.20 |
26 | 26 | Kansas | 68.00 |
27 | 27 | Delaware | 67.75 |
28 | 28 | California | 67.15 |
29 | 29 | Virginia | 66.50 |
30 | 30 | Louisiana | 66.50 |
31 | 31 | Oregon | 66.30 |
32 | 32 | Connecticut | 66.05 |
33 | 33 | Vermont | 65.60 |
34 | 34 | Illinois | 65.25 |
35 | 35 | Maine | 65.00 |
36 | 36 | Maryland | 64.80 |
37 | 37 | Washington | 63.85 |
38 | 38 | Utah | 62.10 |
39 | 39 | New Mexico | 61.00 |
40 | 40 | Wyoming | 60.80 |
41 | 41 | New Hampshire | 60.55 |
42 | 42 | New Jersey | 59.65 |
43 | 43 | South Dakota | 59.20 |
44 | 44 | North Dakota | 58.25 |
45 | 45 | Nebraska | 57.20 |
46 | 46 | West Virginia | 57.05 |
47 | 47 | Massachusetts | 56.95 |
48 | 48 | New York | 53.00 |
49 | 49 | Alaska | 49.00 |
50 | 50 | Hawaii | 48.55 |
51 | 51 | District of Columbia | 47.45 |
Ask the Experts
We asked financial advisors in the Wealthtender community to share their recommendations for job changers to consider both before quitting their current job and upon getting hired by their new employer. Click the Read More links below to view their expert insights.
Methodology
To rank the states and the District of Columbia, Wealthtender considered the rate at which people conducted online searches for indicative terms used by active job seekers over the year-to-date period through May 15, 2022. We then used these metrics to rank-order each state from highest to lowest calculated upon a weighted average of search terms as follows:
- “indeed” (job search website): 40% Weight
- “resume templates”: 25% Weight
- “quit job”: 20% Weight
- “remote jobs”: 20% Weight
Sources: Data used to create this ranking were obtained using Google Trends for the period of January 1 to May 15, 2022. View source data.
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About the Author

About the Author
Brian Thorp
Brian is CEO and founder of Wealthtender. He and his wife live in Texas, enjoying the diversity of Houston and the vibrancy of Austin.
With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress.
Disclaimer: In order to make Wealthtender free for our readers, we earn money from advertisers including financial professionals and firms that pay to be featured on our platform. This creates a natural conflict of interest when we favor promotion of our clients over other professionals and firms not featured on Wealthtender. Learn how we operate with integrity to earn your trust.