Burned out and going nowhere: the American worker is too mentally drained to even look for a new job | Fortune

"More than half of U.S. workers - 53%, according to a new Glassdoor poll of over 1,300 professionals - say they have paused their job search entirely to protect their mental health. It's a figure that captures something economists rarely quantify: the exhaustion tax. The psychic cost of a labor market that demands constant hustle while delivering, for many, almost nothing in return."

"The structural backdrop helps explain why. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave the condition a name last September: the " low-hire, low-fire " economy. The St. Louis Fed has since quantified it: as of late 2025, the hiring rate had fallen to 3.3% - just 0.5 percentage points above the all-time low recorded during the depths of the Great Recession in June 2009. The firing rate, meanwhile, sat at a historically low 1.1%. Workers aren't stupid. They know that there's nowhere to go right now."

"The quits rate - the single best proxy for worker confidence in labor mobility - dropped to 1.9% in late 2025, tying cycle lows. Americans now believe they have only a roughly 45% chance of finding a new role within three months - a figure lower than during the peak of the COVID pandemic in December 2020, per Federal Reserve Bank of New York data. "

"Most U.S. CEOs had no plans to increase headcount in 2026, cementing the low-hire environment as a deliberate corporate posture rather than a cyclical dip. Monthly job growth now averages roughly 50,000-100,000 - well below the 150,000-200,000 range considered healthy."

More than half of U.S. workers have paused job searches to protect mental health, reflecting an exhaustion tax from a labor market that demands constant hustle while delivering little reward. Hiring has fallen to 3.3% and firing remains historically low at 1.1%, creating a sense that there is nowhere to go. The quits rate dropped to 1.9%, indicating reduced confidence in moving between jobs. Americans estimate only about a 45% chance of finding a new role within three months, lower than during the COVID peak. Many CEOs plan no headcount increases in 2026, reinforcing a deliberate low-hire posture. Job growth averages 50,000 to 100,000 per month, below levels considered healthy.

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