Average Turnover Rates By Industry

July 15, 2025

By: Kyle Hullmann, Director of Business Development

One of the hardest problems for businesses and hiring managers to navigate is the ever-changing costs of employee turnover.

If nothing else, employee turnover is expensive. But outside its costs, it can put a damper on employee morale or your company culture. Not only are your remaining employees forced to pick up the lags in productivity, but one person’s departure could influence a chain reaction of others considering their next step — a phenomenon dubbed “turnover contagion.”

If you’re caught in the cycle of managing job turnover, or are preemptively trying to protect your organization as best as you can, you’re in the right place.

We’re outlining the highest employee turnover rates by industry, the top reasons for departures, and how your organization can employ retention strategies to help reduce voluntary turnover rates.

Today’s Turnover Rates

According to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was a 1.86% decrease in separation levels from April 2024 to 2025 across all industries. (“Levels” represent the number of departures by thousands within the given time period.)

Even more interesting, quit levels were down by 6.4% from April 2024 to 2025, which points to a potential trend that voluntary turnovers are on the decline.

How To Calculate Your Average Employee Turnover Rate

To calculate your average turnover rate, you’ll need to know the number of employees separated in a given timeframe (could be a month, quarter, or year) and the average number of employees.

Start by adding the number of active employees at the start of a given time frame and the number of active employees at the end of that timeframe. Remember to include involuntary departures — layoffs, dismissals, and retirements — in your number of “employees separated.” These departures can still impact workflow, productivity, and costs, so they help paint a fuller picture of the state of your business.

Then, divide that number by 2 to find your value for the average employees. Next, divide that number of employees separated by the average number of employees and multiply by 100 to calculate the average turnover rate.

What is a High Turnover Rate?

After calculating your own numbers, you might be wondering: what exactly constitutes a high turnover rate?

While healthy turnover naturally varies depending on the type of business you operate, a general rule of thumb is that an annual turnover rate above 10% is considered high and warrants a closer look. However, context is everything. For example, a 15% turnover rate might be standard in the retail or hospitality space, but it would be alarmingly high in corporate finance or executive-level roles.

The key is benchmarking your numbers against your specific industry average. If your metric significantly outpaces your competitors, your employee departures are likely less about standard market fluctuation and more about a larger internal retention issue.

What Industries Experience the Highest Turnover?

In a longitudinal study conducted by S&P Global of 2,700+ companies, all of the following industries saw an increase in voluntary turnover from 2020 – 2024:

Energy
IT
Utilities
Communication services
Materials
Financials
Healthcare
Consumer staples
Industrials
Real estate
Consumer discretionary

Among those industries, there were 7 with turnover rates above 10%:

Consumer Discretionary: 20.4%
Real Estate: 16.9%
Consumer Staples: 16%
Healthcare: 13.2%
Communication services: 13%
Financials: 12.6%
Industrials: 11.8%

Out of all of those industries, those with turnovers that grew at the fastest rate were consumer discretionary by 4.7%, real estate by 3.9%, and industrials and consumer staples both by 3.2%.

Top Reasons For Employee Departures

If you find yourself in one of those vulnerable industries with the highest turnover rates, you might be asking: what can I do to improve employee retention?

The honest truth is there’s only so much in your control; there are many uncontrollable factors that can influence employee turnover, such as relocation, retirement, or economic downturns. But if you focus on strengthening the factors you can control, you can limit the chances of losing your valued employees.

According to Work Institute’s 2025 Retention Report: Employee Retention Truths in Today’s Workplace, the bulk of 2024 departures were reported as “preventable” reasons. The top 5 of those reasons included:

Career Development | 18.9%

A lack of growth opportunities, career progression, or professional development

Health & Family | 12.4%

Personal health issues, family responsibilities, or change in family dynamics

Work-Life Balance | 11.9%

Difficulty balancing personal and professional responsibilities, lack of flexibility or remote options, and workload concerns

Management Behavior | 9.7%

Poor leadership, lack of support, poor communication

Total Rewards | 8.2%

Dissatisfaction with pay, benefits, or perceived “inequity” compared to industry standards

Employee turnover can be costly and disruptive, but you don’t have to face it alone. Our recruiters specialize in finding candidates who not only fit your role but are committed to staying long-term.

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With those departure reasons in mind, let’s jump into our top tips for strengthening employee retention.

Tips For Strengthening Employee Retention

Many of the “voluntary” reasons for leaving a company are related to unfulfillment: with their professional growth or career development, work-life balance, or management support or benefits.

The secret to employee retention is 2-fold: show up and care for your employees.

Showing up isn’t about being physically present. It’s about being active and engaged with the members on your team. Do your employees feel supported by their direct managers? Does your team show interest and appreciation for the work being done?

When your management shows up, your employees are more engaged. And a higher level of engagement usually drives higher levels of productivity, and, overall, a better culture.

Taking care of your employees is an investment in their overall happiness. Mainly in the form of pay, but also in other benefits like healthcare, flexibility, and remote working.

Not only that, it’s an investment in their growth. Are you providing them with the resources they need to advance to the next level and are you encouraging them to learn new skills? If your employees feel satisfied and cared for, there’s a much greater chance that they’ll choose to stay with your company in the long-run.

Work With AllSearch Recruiting

If you’re stuck in the turnover cycle and can’t seem to keep up with rate of employees leaving vs. staying, consider working with AllSearch Recruiting for your next hire.

Our recruiters specialize in finding the best-fit talent for your role, not just returning the fastest candidate. We make it our mission to find someone who is going to make a long-term impact on your company, and we achieve that by asking the right questions.

As an industry-specific recruiting company, we have teams that focus on recruiting in niche industries — including the industries with the highest turnover rates, like facilities management, manufacturing, commercial real estate, and insurance.

Our goal is to help you reach yours — contact us today to find the next great addition to your team.

But don’t just take our word for it—here is how we recently helped one client solve their retention struggles by focusing on long-term cultural fit:

“I just wanted to take a moment and thank you! I appreciate all the hard work you and the team continue to put into finding candidates for our open positions. From the beginning you took the time to thoroughly understand our objectives, vision and inevitably understanding clearly the type of individuals we seek to fill these open roles… The past 4 candidates have been placed through AllSearch and all have proven to be very strong hires.”

— BRIAN, INDUSTRIAL SALES DIRECTOR

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