More workers quit in January than at any time since 2001, the Department of Labor reported Thursday.
More quits are generally viewed as a good sign for the economy, since they suggest that workers are comfortable enough with their prospects to leave an existing position.
In January, 3.2 million workers quit their jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. That was the most since February of 2001, in the wake of the dotcom bubble.
In comparison, only about 1.6 million people quit their jobs each month during the worst of the recession.
The quit rate rose to 2.2 per 100 jobs, matching the highest level of the recovery.
The survey published Thursday is released with a lag of a month behind the monthly payroll jobs report. But it is still valued by investors and policymakers because it includes detail about gross hiring and layoffs not available in the jobs report.
Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen, in particular, has said that she looks at the quit rate as one of the measures of how the labor market is performing.
Other details from Thursday’s report showed that the jobs market hasn’t changed much to start 2017.
At 5.6 million, total advertised job openings weren’t much changed on the month or year. Actual hiring has risen steadily for four straight months, to 5.4 million in January.
