It pays to switch jobs again, but not everyone has that luxury

Job switchers are getting bigger raises than job stayers again.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images Job switchers are experiencing better wage growth than job stayers.

Last year, both groups saw similar increases, defying historical trends.

Still, not everyone can leave their job or find a new opportunity right now.

It's once again better to switch jobs than stay in your current gig if you want a raise.

"Wage growth for workers who change jobs is picking up again in 2026, even as raises for those who stay put keep slowing," Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau, vice president for macroeconomic research at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said in a LinkedIn post.

That's based on 12-month moving averages of median wage growth for job switchers and stayers tracked by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta using Current Population Survey data.

Year-over-year wage growth for job switchers has been 4.4% for four straight months, while growth for job stayers falls short, with September's estimate at 3.5%.

The gap between the two groups shrank last year, including a brief period where stayers actually saw slightly better wage growth than switchers.

The recent trend could be the start of a return to the historical norm of a healthy job-switching premium.

"The first half of this year was the anomaly, and the low-hire environment is to blame," said Chris Martin, senior economist at Glassdoor.

"Job seekers had to take what they could get, and that often meant compromise: fewer promotions and lower wages." However, some workers don't have the luxury to switch jobs right now.

The quits rate has been bouncing between 1.9% and 2% for a little over a year now, far below the 3% rate a few years ago during the " Great Resignation ," suggesting lower confidence among workers.

Openings have been similarly sluggish and are substantially down from the March 2022 record of 7.5%.