To study the causes of the 2021 Great Resignation, we use text analysis and investigate the changes in work- and quit-related posts between 2018 and 2021 on Reddit. We find that the Reddit discourse evolution resembles the dynamics of the U.S. quit and layoff rates. Furthermore, when the COVID-19 pandemic started, conversations related to working from home, switching jobs, work-related distress, and mental health increased, while discussions on commuting or moving for a job decreased. We distinguish between general work-related and specific quit-related discourse changes using a difference-in-differences method. Our main finding is that mental health and work-related distress topics disproportionally increased among quit-related posts since the onset of the pandemic, likely contributing to the quits of the Great Resignation. Along with better labor market conditions, some relief came beginning-to-mid-2021 when these concerns decreased. Our study underscores the importance of having access to data from online forums, such as Reddit, to study emerging economic phenomena in real time, providing a valuable supplement to traditional labor market surveys and administrative data.

为了研究 2021 年大辞职的原因，我们使用文本分析并调查了 2018 年至 2021 年 Reddit 上与工作和辞职相关的帖子的变化。我们发现 Reddit 话语演变类似于美国辞职率和裁员率的动态。此外，当 COVID-19 大流行开始时，与在家工作、换工作、与工作相关的困扰和心理健康相关的讨论增加，而关于通勤或因工作而搬家的讨论则减少。我们使用双重差异法来区分一般与工作相关的话语变化和特定与戒烟相关的话语变化。我们的主要发现是，自大流行爆发以来，心理健康和与工作相关的困扰话题在与辞职相关的帖子中不成比例地增加，这可能导致了“大辞职”。随着劳动力市场状况的改善，2021 年初至中期这些担忧有所缓解，情况有所缓解。我们的研究强调了获取 Reddit 等在线论坛数据来实时研究新兴经济现象的重要性，为传统劳动力市场调查和行政数据提供了宝贵的补充。