Job-Hunting Intent Jumped 19% in a Year, And Healthcare Workers, Not Tech, Are Leading the Exodus

Here’s a number that should reframe how you think about who’s restless at work right now: 46% of U.S. professionals plan to look for a new job in the next six months. One year ago that figure was just 27%, according to Robert Half data reported by Staffing Industry Analysts. That’s a 19-percentage-point jump in twelve months.

The lazy read is that burned-out tech workers are leading the charge again. They’re not. Healthcare workers are the most likely group in the country to bolt, and they happen to work in the exact sector adding the most jobs. That’s not panic. That’s leverage, and it tells you something useful about how the healthcare hiring boom is rewriting who gets to be picky.

The reversal happened fast, and that matters

Not long ago, most workers were hugging their jobs. In the second half of 2025, only 27% planned to search and 73% said they’d stay put.

Then the line moved hard. It went from 27% to 38% to 46% across three consecutive surveys. That’s a near-doubling of intent in roughly a year.

• H2 2025: 27% planned to look for a new job.
• H1 2026: 38% planned to look.
• H2 2026: 46% plan to look, the highest in the recent tracking window.

Interview Guys Take: A swing this fast is part real and part mood. Robert Half is a staffing firm, so it has a commercial interest in workers feeling itchy, and the survey measures stated intent, not actual quits. But three rising waves in a row is a trend line, not a blip, and the direction is unmistakable. People who were terrified to move two years ago are now updating their resumes.

Why healthcare, not tech, is the story

When you split the 46% by sector, the ranking flips the usual narrative on its head. Healthcare workers lead at 56%, with technology workers trailing at 49%, according to Robert Half’s official survey release.

And this isn’t a one-quarter fluke. Healthcare topped the same survey back in the December 2025 wave too, with 44% planning a move into early 2026, the highest of any sector even then. This is a multi-quarter pattern.

• Healthcare: 56% the most likely sector to job-search.
• Technology: 49% high, but not the leader.
• Gen Z: 55% the most restless age group overall.

This is leverage, not desperation

Here’s where the contrarian point sharpens. When a sector full of people wants to leave, you might assume the work is unbearable and everyone’s fleeing. Sometimes that’s true. But not here.

Healthcare workers are leaving because they can. Of the 3.5 million jobs added nationwide between July 2023 and July 2025, more than 38% (about 1.35 million) were healthcare and social assistance roles, making it the single dominant engine of U.S. job growth, per Indeed Hiring Lab.

When your field is hiring like that, quitting isn’t a gamble. There’s a confident floor under your feet, and that changes everything about how you behave.

• Demand is structural, not cyclical: healthcare earnings have grown nearly twice as fast as non-healthcare earnings since 1980, and average healthcare wages now sit more than 14% above the economy-wide average, according to the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute.
• The runway is long: the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects roughly 1.9 million annual healthcare openings through 2034, with employment growing much faster than average for all occupations.
• The math favors the worker: more openings plus rising wages plus a long forecast equals room to walk if an offer disappoints. If you want a sense of how high that ceiling goes, look at the best paying jobs in healthcare.

Interview Guys Take: Quit rates and search intent get framed as bad news for employers. Flip the frame. When the highest-demand workers in the country are the most willing to leave, that’s a sign they finally have options, and options are exactly what most workers spent the last few years missing.

What’s actually driving the moves

If you assumed everyone’s quitting over pay, the data says otherwise. The top motivations skew toward what a job feels like day to day, not just the number on the offer letter.

• Better benefits and perks: 47% the single biggest driver.
• Career advancement: 43% people want a ladder, not just a raise.
• Remote-work options: 39% flexibility still moves the needle hard.
• Higher salary: 35% important, but not the top reason.
• Burnout: 26% real, and especially relevant in healthcare.

Pay shows up lower than you’d think, and that’s a trap

Salary ranks fourth on that list at 35%, behind benefits, advancement, and remote work. Don’t misread that as workers caring less about money.

It usually means they’re already paid reasonably and want the rest of the package to catch up. That’s a confidence signal too. People bargaining from desperation lead with cash, not perks.

It also explains why so many strong candidates quietly leave compensation on the table. If you’re not naming a number, you may be funding your own discount, which is the whole point of the salary silence myth that’s costing you $10,000 per year.

The confidence gap between sectors is the real headline

Stack the two numbers side by side and you get the most useful insight in the whole survey. Healthcare at 56% is shopping. Tech at 49% is treading more carefully.

Both groups are restless. The difference is the ground under each one. Healthcare workers leave knowing 1.9 million openings a year are coming. White-collar tech and office roles are job-hunting into a choppier market where postings dipped late in 2025 before rebounding.

• If you’re in a hiring-hot field: your intent to leave is backed by leverage, and you can negotiate accordingly.
• If you’re in a softer sector: high intent doesn’t guarantee employers have the openings to absorb it, so timing and positioning matter more.
• Either way: job-search confidence is no longer a single national mood. It’s sector-specific, and it should change how you read every ‘everyone’s quitting’ headline.

Interview Guys Take: The lesson isn’t ‘quit your job.’ It’s that the same survey means two opposite things depending on your field. A 56% in healthcare reads like confidence. A similar number in a contracting sector can read like frustration with nowhere to go. Same emotion, very different leverage, and the gap is exactly why some workers are revenge quitting while others stay frozen.

If you’re in the hot seat, act like it

When you’re in a sector with this much demand, your posture in interviews should reflect it. You’re not auditioning for permission to exist. You’re evaluating whether this employer is worth your scarce skills.

That doesn’t mean arrogance. It means asking sharper questions about benefits and advancement (the things actually driving moves) and being ready to talk specifics. Sharpening your answers to the common healthcare interview questions and walking in with a clean healthcare resume turns leverage into an actual offer instead of just a feeling.

The crunchy stat is the jump: 27% to 46% in a year. The crunchy insight is who’s driving it. Healthcare workers, sitting on the strongest demand in the economy, are the most willing to walk, and they’re doing it from strength rather than fear.

So the next time you see a ‘half of workers want to quit’ headline, ask the only question that matters for you: how hot is my specific field? Your sector’s hiring math, not the national average, decides whether that 46% means you hold the cards or you should read the fine print first.