TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — New data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the streak of record-high quits which began in July is finally starting to cool down.

The number of quits per month in December signaled a drop in the number of Americans leaving their jobs voluntarily. The country had 4.3 million people leave their workplace, compared to the 4.5 million in November 2021. The B.L.S. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover report showed the change was a change of 161,000.

In terms of overall separations, or how many people left a job through layoffs, quits, and retirements, among other types, 5.9 million Americans separated from their source of employment. Generally, the quits rate and the separation rate both changed little, remaining at 2.9% and 4%, respectively.

While quits decreased somewhat, layoffs and discharges were “little changed” with 1.2 million, what B.L.S. called series lows. The number of layoffs and discharges in retail positions did decrease, but federal government layoffs went up.

For overall employment figures, B.L.S. said the large number of hires and separations still gave the U.S. a net employment gain of 6.4 million employed Americans. According to the data, 75.3 million were hired against a total of 68.9 million total separations, giving a net-positive on employment across the country.

Additionally, employment figures were stable, with 10.9 million job openings in December, for an unchanged opening rate of 6.8%. Most of those job openings were in food services and information, while job openings in finance, insurance, and wholesale trade all decreased.

December’s employment numbers showed a national unemployment rate of 3.9%, according to the B.L.S. release at the beginning of January. Most of the jobs filled in December were in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, manufacturing, construction and transportation and warehousing. Compared to national rates, Florida’s seasonal unemployment was recorded at 4.4%, still lower than the month before.

The DEO said the state had gained ack about 92% of the jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, and had gained 479,300 more jobs in 2021 than in 2020. Industry trends in Florida mirrored the national selections to some extent, with the most jobs having been added back to the leisure and hospitality industry, as well as gains in transportation and business services.

Still, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said the latest numbers were still not at levels shown pre-pandemic.