Gallup Finds 51% of U.S. Workers Eyed New Jobs in Late 2025

Gallup measured 51% of U.S. employees as either applying for new jobs or scanning for openings during the fourth quarter of 2025, among the highest readings since the firm began tracking the question in 2015, according to a column published by Entrepreneur on October 7, 2026.

The column, written by a leadership coach, said that figure sits alongside resignation rates near their lowest point in a decade — a gap suggesting many workers have mentally quit well before they hand in notice. Gallup also found that 42% of employees who left voluntarily believed their manager or employer could have kept them, and 45% said no one discussed their satisfaction or future with them in the three months before they departed.

Marti Willett, president of Digital Marketing Recruiters, told the author that early warning signs are behavioral rather than numerical, because strong performers often keep hitting targets after disengaging.

The piece cited CNBC reporting that an IBM system built on the Watson platform predicted departures with roughly 95% accuracy in 2019 and saved the company close to $300 million in retention costs. Smaller employers, the author argued, can approximate that by tracking who stops volunteering, who goes quiet and who stops asking about advancement.

This story was first reported by Entrepreneur.