Job Hugging Hats

The Great Resignation is over. What replaced it never got a heroic name: the voluntary quit rate has fallen to around 1.9%, near a decade low, and roughly a million fewer Americans walk out of a job each month than did at the 2021 peak. Economists call it the Big Stay. Everyone else calls it job hugging, and in a February 2026 survey 57% of US workers said that is exactly what they are doing, up from 45% the year before. It is not loyalty. It is arithmetic. Entry-level postings are down, nearly half of hiring managers say they would rather buy an AI tool than train a new grad, and more than half of self-described job huggers report working longer hours for the privilege of still having a desk. The reward for surviving the last round is being available for the next one. These are hats for people who have done that math and stayed put anyway. The typography does half the work: serif italic for the resignation letter that never got sent, flat institutional sans for the lines that need no help, and a collegiate arch on JOB HUGGER, which is a varsity letter awarded for flinching.