Chart 2. Average quits rates, by firm size class and macroeconomic event, December 2000–January 2022 (in percent)
Macroeconomic event Size class 1 (fewer than 10 employees) Size class 2 (10–49 employees) Size class 3 (50–249 employees) Size class 4 (250–999 employees) Size class 5 (1,000–4,999 employees) Size class 6 (5,000 or more employees)

None

 2.04 2.42 2.35 1.93 1.48 0.92

Dot-com recession

 2.08 2.65 2.84 2.09 1.55 1.15

Great Recession

 1.98 2.10 2.10 1.68 1.34 0.93

Pandemic

 2.25 2.89 2.97 2.77 2.35 1.09

Total

 2.06 2.45 2.41 1.99 1.56 0.95

Note: For this analysis, the dates of the three macroeconomic events of interest are March 2001 to March 2002 for the dot-com recession, December 2007 to June 2009 for the Great Recession, and March 2020 to January 2022 for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Source: Author's estimates based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/dsrv?jt).