WASHINGTON (AP) – Quitting your job – all but unheard of during and after the Great Recession – is becoming more common again. That could mean pay raises are coming for more Americans.

The trend has already emerged in the restaurant and retail industries, where quits and pay are rising faster than in the overall economy. Workers in those industries appear to be taking advantage of rising consumer demand to seek better pay elsewhere.

Workers who quit typically do so to take higher-paying jobs. That’s why rising numbers of quits typically signal confidence in the economy and the job market. As the trend takes hold, employers are often forced to offer higher pay to hold on to their staffers or attract new ones.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that the number of people who quit jobs rose 3 percent from December to January to 2.8 million – the most in more than six years. Quits have jumped 17 percent over the past 12 months.

Since the Great Recession ended, the figure has soared. Just 1.6 million people quit their jobs in August 2009, two months after the recession officially ended. That was the fewest for any month in the 14 years that the figures have been tracked.

Quits tend to open up more jobs for the unemployed. One barrier for the jobless in a weak economy is that few workers risk quitting their jobs to take a different one, in part because new hires are often most likely to be laid off.

So most workers stay put, leaving fewer options for college graduates, people recently laid off and others seeking work.