Should I quit my job now, or search while I'm still employed?

On this page

Short version
Who it's for
What to do
Your options
Beliefs checked
Questions to ask

The short version

If you can stay while you look, the survey evidence leans toward searching before you quit. That survey evidence compares employed and non-employed people, though, not people who quit with similar people who stayed.

One experiment points the other way for relatively high-skilled positions: applicants holding a stopgap (interim) job got fewer callbacks (the employer contacting them to take the application further, such as an interview) than unemployed applicants (the 2018 Farber resume experiment). The authors of that 2018 Farber experiment suggest that searching for a job while employed can bring significantly fewer results.

In the New York Fed's job search survey (2013 to 2017), offers to people who had a job paid about 21% more than offers to people who didn't, even after allowing for the differences the researchers could measure (our arithmetic from the survey's estimate). The New York Fed survey covered adults aged 18 to 64, not self-employed, with at least one job offer in the past six months.

Quitting can also cost you unemployment benefits: the US Labor Department says leaving work voluntarily without good cause (a reason the law accepts for leaving) is a reason for disqualification from benefits under all states' laws, though the definition of good cause varies by state.

If a layoff is coming, our advice is to start searching now. If you can't stay, see "What if I hate my job and can't stay?" below.

Who this is for

You want out of your job, or you think a layoff is coming, and you're deciding whether to leave now or keep the paycheck while you look. You may hate your job and wonder whether to quit without another one lined up. This guide is also for you if you're already out of work and wondering whether a stopgap job would help or hurt your search.

What to do this week (our advice)

If you can bear the job a while longer, consider starting the search before you resign. In one study (the published 2022 version of Faberman and colleagues' work, in Econometrica), people searching while employed were at least three times more effective in their search than unemployed people and got better offers, though the abstract we read does not define "more effective" (option 1).
If you see a layoff coming, start now rather than waiting for the last day (option 3).
Work out how many weeks your savings would cover without pay, and compare it with the average length of unemployment (see "How long could I go without pay?" below).
Before you resign, ask your state's unemployment agency how it treats a quit. The US Labor Department says the definition of good cause varies by state. Don't resign on a hoped-for offer either: California's unemployment guide says that, when you leave one job for another, a hope of a new job is not enough to establish good cause for leaving work; you need a definite assurance of a starting date.
Price out your health cover before you leave, comparing COBRA (keeping your group health plan by paying for it) with a Marketplace plan (see "What happens to my health cover?" below).
Keep the search off company time, equipment and networks. Treat anything on a work device as potentially visible to your employer.
If you're out of work and applying for higher-skilled office roles, weigh whether to list a stopgap job. A stopgap job cost callbacks for such roles in the 2018 Farber resume experiment, but a longer visible gap can also cost callbacks in the Kroft, Lange and Notowidigdo resume experiment (option 4, and the first belief checked below). Be honest on any form that asks for your full job history.
If your employer closed, say so plainly in your application. Only a clear statement that the former employer went out of business reversed the stigma of being unemployed, according to the Washington Center for Equitable Growth's brief on Norlander and colleagues' 2020 research.

Your options

1. Stay and search while you're employed

What happens. You keep your job and your pay, and search in your own time.

What it gives. Pay while you look and, in the survey data we read, better offers.

What it gives up. Time and energy, and some risk if your employer finds out, since it may be able to let you go.

What the evidence says. In the published 2022 version of Faberman, Mueller, Şahin and Topa's study (Econometrica), people searching while employed were at least three times more effective in their search than unemployed people, and got better offers. The 2017 working paper version of that study said the employed were about four times more efficient in job search. The abstract we read does not define what "more effective" measures.

The 21% in the short version comes from the 2017 NBER working paper's estimate of 0.194 log points, a difference measured on a logged pay scale. By our arithmetic, 0.194 on that scale works out to about 21%.

The North Carolina Department of Labor (page read November 2026) says "employment at will" means that unless a specific law or an employment contract provides otherwise, an employer can discharge an employee for any reason or no reason at all. That is one state's agency; your state or your contract may differ. Gap: we found no official page on whether looking for another job is itself protected in your state; your state's labor department is the place to ask.

2. Quit without another job lined up

What happens. You leave, and give the search all your time.

What it gives. Time for the search.

What it gives up. Your pay, and possibly your unemployment benefits if your state finds you left without good cause.

What the evidence says.

The unemployed spent 8.4 hours a week searching and sent 8.1 applications a month (a 2017 New York Fed report on its job search survey).
In that 2017 New York Fed report, employed workers averaged 1.2 hours a week and 1.2 applications a month, an average taken over all employed workers, of whom roughly one in five to one in four were actively looking.
That 2017 New York Fed report pooled three waves of the survey, with about 2,300 employed and 165 unemployed workers aged 18 to 64, so its unemployed group is small.
The 2017 New York Fed report counts workers on temporary layoff among the unemployed, so these figures do not separate out people who chose to quit.
Gap: we found no study comparing people who quit first with similar people who stayed and searched.

3. If a layoff is coming, start searching now

What happens. You start searching as soon as you see the layoff coming, and leave early if you land a job first.

What it gives. A head start.

What it gives up. Time and energy for the search. Resigning rather than waiting can also cost you unemployment benefits.

What the evidence says. Workers who leave a struggling (distressed) firm have higher wages in their next job than those who stay until they are let go, and the result holds up after controlling for worker quality (a preliminary US Census Bureau technical paper, TP-2002-18). Because that Census Bureau paper is preliminary, treat it as a lead rather than a settled result. It compares people who left with people who stayed, not when they began searching, so starting early is our reading of that Census Bureau paper.

Your employer may owe you no notice of a layoff. The US Labor Department's Employment Law Guide (page read October 2026) says the WARN law requires 60 calendar days' notice of plant closings and mass layoffs. The WARN law generally covers employers with 100 or more employees, not counting those who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months and those who work less than 20 hours a week. The WARN law also generally covers employers with 100 or more employees, including part-time workers, who together work at least 4,000 hours a week, not counting overtime. So you should not wait for a notice before you start.

Where there is a lack of work or a reduction in force (a layoff), the separation is involuntary and benefits would not be denied, according to the US Labor Department's 2021 comparison of state unemployment laws. Searching early and resigning early are separate decisions. Resigning is the one an unemployment agency would judge. Gap: we found no rule on whether you keep a severance package if you resign before a planned layoff; read the severance plan or handbook first, and remember that asking HR tells your employer you are thinking of leaving.

4. If you're already out of work, take a stopgap job while you search

What happens. You take an interim job, possibly below your level, and keep looking.

What it gives. Income while you look.

What it gives up. Possibly some callbacks.

What the evidence says.

Unemployed applicants had a 12.6% callback rate, against 10.8% for applicants holding a high-quality interim job and 10.2% for those holding a low-quality one (the 2018 Farber resume experiment, 8,488 resumes sent to 2,122 job ads, reported in NBER working paper 24605).
The 2018 Farber resume experiment found this penalty only for relatively high-skilled jobs, such as administrative or executive assistant and office manager.
The 2018 Farber resume experiment did not find it for clerical, data entry, office assistant or other lower-skilled jobs.
A low-level interim job significantly reduced callbacks for experienced college-educated women applying for administrative support jobs (a resume experiment in NBER working paper 21689, page read October 2026).
The job types these two resume experiments name are administrative and office roles, and the resumes showed interim jobs. So these two resume experiments test a stopgap job rather than a long-held one, and the results may not carry over to other fields.

Two popular beliefs, checked

"Recruiters filter out anyone who is unemployed"

Not as a blanket filter: the evidence measures callbacks, which fell with time out of work for younger applicants in one experiment, but not for experienced women in another.

In the Kroft, Lange and Notowidigdo resume experiment (2013), callbacks at eight months of unemployment were about 45% lower than at one month, falling from roughly 7% to 4%.
That 2013 Kroft, Lange and Notowidigdo experiment sent fictitious resumes to administrative or clerical, customer service and sales job openings in the 100 largest US metropolitan areas.
In NBER working paper 21689, the resume experiment with experienced college-educated women, callbacks showed no relationship with how long the applicant had been unemployed.
In that same resume experiment (NBER working paper 21689), applicants aged 50 and older were significantly less likely to be called back.
If you are early in your career, this evidence applies most directly to you: J-PAL's summary says the Kroft, Lange and Notowidigdo findings speak most directly to younger job seekers with relatively little work experience. J-PAL's summary also says time out of work may affect older job seekers differently.

"The search goes better once you're out and can do it full time"

Not when you count offers against effort, in the New York Fed survey. The unemployed were about 7% of the sample and received about 16% of all offers, the 2017 New York Fed report says. Employed workers who were actively looking were about 20% of the sample and received almost half of all offers, in that same 2017 New York Fed report. By our arithmetic, those two groups got similar shares of offers for their size.

In that 2017 New York Fed report, the employed who were looking put in about half the search effort of the unemployed. The employed receive more offers per application than the non-employed, says an IZA discussion paper version of the Faberman study (page read October 2026). These are survey patterns, not experiments, so they do not show that quitting would slow any one person's search.

Questions to ask yourself

What if I hate my job and can't stay? Our advice: the averages on this page are no reason to stay in a job that is harming you. Our advice if you are going to leave anyway: first work out how many weeks your money would last, and ask your state's unemployment agency how it treats a quit. Our advice is also to try a transfer or leave of absence unless that would plainly be futile, keeping a note of what you asked (see "Did you try alternatives first?" below).
How long could I go without pay? The average duration of unemployment was 25.4 weeks in September 2026 (AARP, reporting Bureau of Labor Statistics data). The monthly chance of finding a job fell from about 25% early in a stretch of unemployment to about 10% after one year (NBER working paper 21689, using matched Current Population Survey data from 2008 to 2014).
Would quitting cost me unemployment benefits or severance? It can, and your state's unemployment agency decides. Was the reason connected to the work? In many states, good cause is explicitly restricted to good cause connected with the work, attributable to the employer, or involving fault on the employer's part, says the US Labor Department's 2023 comparison of state unemployment laws. A state may also interpret its law to include good personal cause, the same 2023 Labor Department comparison says. Did you try alternatives first? Even if the job was seriously harming you, it does not count as good cause unless you first tried reasonable alternatives, such as asking for a transfer or a leave of absence, or it can be conclusively established that trying would have been futile (US Labor Department, guidance on voluntary leaving, page read October 2026). Did you leave to look, or for a definite job? Under a state rule quoted in California's unemployment guide (page read October 2026), leaving work to seek other work is not good cause, except leaving part-time work to seek full-time work when the part-time work prevents an effective search. For leaving one job for another to count as good cause, you need a definite assurance of a starting date, and a hope or speculative expectation of a new job is not enough (California's unemployment guide). Who has to show what? California's Employment Development Department (page read October 2026) says that if you quit you need to show you had a good reason, and that if you are fired your employer must prove there was misconduct. Gap: these are federal summaries and one state's rules, and we did not read every state's; your state's unemployment agency decides your case, so ask it before you resign. On severance after a resignation, see the note under option 3.
What happens to my health cover? Quitting does not by itself rule out COBRA: the US Labor Department (page read October 2026) says COBRA gives workers who lose their health benefits, under circumstances such as voluntary or involuntary job loss, the right to continue group health benefits for limited periods. Under COBRA they may have to pay up to 102% of the plan's cost, the US Labor Department says. The US Labor Department says COBRA generally requires group health plans of employers with 20 or more employees in the prior year to offer continuation coverage. HealthCare.gov (page read October 2026) says Marketplace plans may cost less than COBRA, especially if you qualify for savings based on your income.

How we checked this: this page is the output of a rigorous research pipeline run with AI tools: every factual sentence rests on a finding checked against the source's own words, and a person approved the page before it went up. How we check our facts. Updated November 12, 2026. This page is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.