Abstract
In this article I have viewed the workers' quit propensities in the United States. Specifically I have analyzed the factors influencing quit rate variation among industries in terms of the monopoly and competitive dichotomy. In order to do this I have performed regression analysis of quit rate variation among industries after dichotomizing the sample of 110 industries into monopoly and competitive sectors. The model I used regressed the quit rate for each industry (Yq) on the wage (Xw), concentration ratio (Xc), expansion ratio (Xe), ratio of female workers to all employees (Xf), and the ratio of production workers to all employees (Xp).
The result of the statistical analysis indicates some essential difference between monopoly and competitive industries in terms of the workers' quit propensities and in terms of the factors influencing their quit behavior. The quit rate tends to be high in competitive industries, and the wage, low. The wage is the most important explanatory variable for quit rate variation in competitive industries. These aspects of evidence indicate that in competitive industries, workers are quitting more frequently than in monopoly industries, and that their motives are better wages elsewhere. These findings suggest that the traditional free market principle still functions in the labor market of this sector of the economy. In high concentrated industries, on the other hand, workers do not quit frequently, and when they do, the wage is not the sole motive. As shown by the strong correlation between the quit rate and the concentration ratio, there are certain aspects of concentrated industries, in addition to high wages, which make workers reluctant to quit. If we reflect these findings on the features of the employment system of monopoly firms, the analysis verifies that monopoly industries offer high wages and also incentives other than wage which make workers want to stay with the firm.
