Northern Ireland capital in top 20 UK cities for people wanting to quit their jobs

Belfast is in the top 20 UK cities for people unsatisfied with their jobs, according to recent data.

Over 7,000 employees in the Northern Ireland capital have searched ‘how to resign from my job’ keywords in the last 12 months, making it the 16th highest in the UK.

Experts at Resume.io, who sought the most commonly searched terms related to resignation/quitting a job revealed that 7,080 people with an estimated 203 searches per 10,000 people for terms related to resignation, equating to over 2% of the city’s 348,005 population in 2024.

This equates to roughly 590 searches for keyword like ‘resignation letter template’, ‘quiet quitting’ and ‘how to leave my job’ each month.

According to the research Bristol has the highest percentage of people wanting to quit their job, with an estimated 412 searches per 10,000 people for terms related to resignation, equating to one in 25 (4.12%) of the city’s 482,998 population. Bristol received 28.5% greater searches than fellow South-Western city of Portsmouth in ninth place (330.96).

In second place is Manchester. Approximately 3.95% of the city’s 579,917 population searches for how to quit their job annually, equating to 395 searches per 10,000 people. ‘Resignation letter’ was the most commonly searched here, with 8,640 searches a year, followed by ‘Resignation letter template’ with 3,840 searches. Manchester generated over 3,000 more annual searches than Sheffield (19,680), the closest city in the top 10.

Cambridge is third, with an estimated 3.84% of their 149,963 population searching ‘how to quit their job’, despite having the smallest population and lowest annual searches than the other cities in the top 10 and having just ¼ of Manchester’s population. This highlights the impact that a smaller city has.

Newcastle is fourth, approximately 3.76% of their 311,976 population are searching for ways to quit their job. Their most searched search term is 'Resignation letter' with 3,840 annual searches (1.23% of their population). They are also the only city in the North East region in the top 10.

Reading is fifth, with 3.64% of their population of 178,196 Googling how to quit their job. 'Resignation letter' is also their most searched search term here, with approximately 2,040 annual searches (1.14% of the entire population). Despite having the second-smallest population in the top 10, they are two places lower than Cambridge.

Birmingham is in eighth place, with 38,760 searches a year for terms related to quitting jobs (3.32% of their 1,166,049 population). This is over 20,000 more searches than the neighbouring Midlands city Coventry in 12th place. 'Resignation letter' is their most searched term, with approximately 15,600 annual searches, accounting for 1.34% of the population.

However those in Bradford are most satisfied with their job. Despite having 600,000 searches a year relating to queries surrounding resignation, this only equates to just 101 searches per 10,000 people (or 1.01% of their population). This is over three times fewer searches than neighbouring city Leeds, with 3.54% of their 829,413 population searching how to quit their job.

As ‘Resignation Letter’ and ‘resignation letter template’ were the most commonly searched terms across all UK cities.