(I wrote this) I wish I had clearer answers to those questions! The conclusion is just a little unsatisfying from a writing perspective—it's just too early to tell exactly what's going on. The quits data through most of 2021 don't look all that different from what we'd expect based on the pre-pandemic trend, though there were definitely more than anticipated, especially later in the year. But this is following a massively-disruptive pandemic that put a lot of people out of work and in general had a dramatic impact on the employment situation.

I think the most interesting part is the decrease in layoffs that coincided with the increase in quits. People aren't leaving that much more than before, but when they leave, they're doing so on their own terms.