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Employee turnover rates are finally stabilizing after reaching unprecedented highs. In 2022, a WTW survey found that up to 53% of employees were considering a job change. Today, that number has dropped to 28%, with 11% remaining open to offers last year.
While this shift has been dubbed “The Great Stay,” the financial impact of attrition remains significant. Replacing a single employee can cost anywhere from half to four times their annual salary, creating a substantial burden for organizations.
Beyond direct costs, high turnover quietly hinders business growth and innovation. Strengthening employee retention is key to reducing these challenges and fostering a more engaged workforce. In this blog, we’ll explore industry-specific trends, common retention obstacles, and effective strategies to improve employee retention and reduce turnover. Ready? Let’s dive in.
What is employee turnover?
Employee turnover is the total number of employees who leave an organization over a specified time period. This includes voluntary departures, layoffs, and dismissals. Voluntary departure is a tough challenge for organizations to solve, as many lack clarity over why employees leave while workers today have unprecedented mobility.
Research has found that it takes companies an average of six months to break even on a new hire, while 30% of new hires leave within 90 days. Attrition can also create expertise gaps in your organization, as experienced employees leave along with their knowledge. Investing in your company culture, employee engagement, and retention strategies that work has become a necessity.
Which industry has the highest employee turnover rate?
Research conducted by S&P Global shows that worldwide, the consumer discretionary sector had the highest rate of turnover at 20.5% percent. The sector includes a wide range of industries, including specialty retail, automobiles, media, and electronics. Healthcare (13.2%), IT (12.7%), financials (12.6%), and manufacturing (11.8%) are all among the hardest industries when it comes to voluntary turnover.
How do you calculate employee turnover rate?
Employee turnover rate is a critical metric for organizations that want to control their recruitment costs, boost productivity, and retain the most talented people in the workforce. To calculate your organization’s employee turnover rate, identify the total number of employees who have left your organization over a specific period. Next, divide the total number of departures by the average number of employees in your organization over that same time period. Multiply the result by 100 to find the turnover rate as a percentage.
The process can be broken down into this simple formula:
Annual Turnover = [(Number of employees who left / average number of employees) * 100]
Employee turnover by industry: An analysis
Industries with tough-to-fill roles are especially vulnerable to high turnover costs. Healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, and professional services require specialized skills and experience. Better retention strategies that include an emphasis on employee recognition and well-being are an investment in long-term productivity and short-term recruitment cost reduction.
Here’s a breakdown of key industries to keep an eye on when it comes to employee turnover:
Healthcare
The healthcare sector has experienced a tumultuous half-decade. According to a 2024 report from NSI Nursing Solutions Inc., turnover was 18.4% among registered nurses. Other studies show that physician turnover reached 13% in 2024. Turnover rates vary across settings, with nursing homes and at-home care providers experiencing some of the highest rates, while across positions, hospitals experience an average turnover rate of 20.7% annually. These numbers have improved since the pandemic, but still represent an industry struggling to retain talent, with many workers planning on leaving the industry altogether.
The primary contributors to high healthcare turnover are burnout and staff shortages. Burnout has long been an issue for healthcare workers. In the United States, the CDC found that nearly half of all healthcare workers report burnout, characterized by exhaustion, fatigue, and a constant feeling of being overwhelmed or drained.
Staff shortages have also contributed to burnout and voluntary turnover. The World Health Organization (WHO) anticipates that the global healthcare industry will face an 11-million worker shortfall by 2030. The reasons behind staff shortages vary by country and region, including recruitment challenges in remote and rural regions and high-stress work environments. As vacancies go unfilled for years, existing employees are expected to pick up the slack, creating a high-stress environment that impacts the employee experience.
Financial services
High-stress workplaces and competitive recruitment strategies have helped to create high turnover rates in the financial services industry. Non-officer turnover rates are currently hovering around 20%, while officer roles (including finance officers who oversee company transactions, accounting systems, and payroll) have risen to 6.5%, almost double the turnover rate in 2021.
Financial services is an industry known for competitive recruitment strategies, leading to significant salary increases over the last several years. However, salary alone has not proven to be an effective retention strategy, as employee expectations have evolved. Financial services workers are increasingly looking for better benefits and flexible work scenarios, with increasing pressure for remote and hybrid work options in an industry that was slow to adopt more flexibility.
Tracking key metrics on retention can help financial service companies identify where they stand compared to industry averages, and where they can start to improve:
- Overall turnover rate: The total number of employees who have left the company over a given time frame (such as a year), divided by the average total number of employees for that time period.
- Voluntary turnover: The turnover rate refined to focus only on employees who left voluntarily, omitting layoffs and dismissals.
- Employee satisfaction: Employee satisfaction can be captured through the use of surveys or interviews led by HR.
- New hire turnover: New hires are a major investment, and tracking new hire turnover is critical. Divide the number of new hires who left the company within one year of being hired and divide by the total number of new hires over the same period.
Manufacturing
A 2025 survey by Deloitte found that the average cost to replace a single skilled frontline worker in manufacturing ranges from $10,000 to $40,000, with over half of manufacturers reporting a moderate to severe financial impact from employee turnover.
In addition, the manufacturing industry sees an average monthly quit rate of 1.6%. While turnover rates vary month-to-month, that would project to a 19.2% annual turnover rate.
Talent recruitment and retention are among the biggest challenges facing manufacturing. Long-term, demand for skilled labor roles is poised to grow fastest and make up the largest quantity of unfilled manufacturing jobs over the next 10 years.
What’s standing between manufacturers and better retention? Wage competitiveness is a major factor, with manufacturers widely reporting competition from other employers as a key component in high turnover. Total compensation packages have been on the rise in manufacturing to combat the attractiveness of other positions, but it’s not the only retention tool available to manufacturers.
Workplace safety is another concern. Nearly one-third of manufacturing employees say that workplace safety is the area where they feel most ignored by their employers. Creating a safe work environment, providing the right safety equipment, and acting quickly to eliminate workplace hazards are long-term strategies for successful retention. Manufacturers that value clear communications and address employee safety concerns will give themselves a natural advantage when it comes to talent. Paying attention to employee feedback is critical in manufacturing.
Professional services
The professional services industry, including consulting, legal, and IT roles has been struggling with talent recruitment and retention for years. Turnover outpaced new hires throughout 2024, reflecting a lack of skilled talent and high competition for people qualified to fill those roles. Strong growth prospects across the sector will only compound the challenges faced by HR departments as competition in recruitment heats up.
When it comes to turnover, companies in the professional services industry are most vulnerable in three areas: career mobility, job satisfaction, and workload.
Sectors like consulting, legal, and IT rely on highly skilled, knowledgeable workers. Top talent in these sectors have high career mobility, and the competition to attract them can be fierce.
Professional services employees are also highly sensitive to job satisfaction. They expect to feel fulfilled at their jobs, and companies that fail to meet those high standards will see it in their turnover rates.
Workload is another leading cause of attrition in professional services. Demanding workloads are deeply ingrained in professional services. For HR departments, strategies to keep employees engaged and motivated is crucial to mitigating burnout.
A recent survey of 7,726 technology professionals revealed that one-third have changed jobs in the past two years, prompting 74% of organizations to express concern about IT talent retention. The primary reasons for these job changes include the desire for higher compensation, improved career prospects, and more engaging work. Additionally, 54% of respondents identified heavy workloads as a significant source of stress in their roles.
5 strategies to combat employee turnover by industry
Organizations that prioritize retention need a comprehensive plan to reduce employee turnover. Industries hardest hit by employee turnover need a response to high attrition rates. Implementing these strategies will make your organization a more competitive, desirable place for top talent to work.
1. Improve employee engagement and recognition programs
- Healthcare: Recognizing staff when they’re feeling overworked and overwhelmed at critical times can improve well-being and help prevent burnout. When staff are stretched thin, a feel-good moment goes a long way toward improving employee engagement and keeping staff motivated.
- Financial services: Employees want to know that their company is paying attention, especially when they have big wins. Celebrate high-pressure achievements like meeting sales targets and completing time-pressured projects.
- Manufacturing: Acknowledging production goals and safety compliance will help employees feel noticed, appreciated, and engaged.
- Professional services: Reward client wins and innovative problem-solving.
Streamline employee engagement and recognition with Achievers Recognize. Our employee recognition program provides points-based recognition that employees can send, receive, and redeem for personalized rewards. High-frequency, high-impact recognition produces results.
2. Offer career development opportunities
- Healthcare: Provide pathways for advancement, such as leadership training for nurses, avenues for administrative staff to advance, and encourage specialization opportunities for physicians.
- Financial services: New certifications like CPA or CFA are critical goals for career growth in financial services. Smart organizations support their employees by helping them earn new certifications and encouraging internal promotions.
- Manufacturing: Offer upskilling programs for technical and supervisory roles so that your current employees can qualify for promotions. Organizations that provide realistic paths for internal advancement can see better retention.
- Professional services: Promote ongoing education and certifications across the board. Past surveys have shown that up to 94% of employees would stay in their current roles if the company invested in their careers.
3. Leverage data-driven insights through tools like Achievers
- Healthcare: Address burnout using real-time feedback. Push short surveys and opportunities for employees to tell you how they’re doing so that you can identify difficult periods and respond with insights into your employees’ well-being.
- Financial services: Analyze trends on recognition platforms to help retain high performers. Understand who your high-impact employees are.
- Manufacturing: Identify attrition drivers like unsafe conditions. Gathering employee feedback about the workplace gives you the knowledge you need to make meaningful changes.
- Professional services: Use sentiment analysis to predict disengagement. Sentiment analysis can be conducted on employee feedback to gauge sense of belonging and take timely action to improve engagement.
4. Enhance workplace flexibility and work-life balance
- Healthcare: Flexible shift scheduling can change the game when it comes to work-life balance in the healthcare industry. Give healthcare professionals more power over their time.
- Financial services: Provide hybrid work options. According to CBRE, 85% of financial services employees prefer the option to work virtually two to three days per week.
- Manufacturing: Experiment with four-day workweeks or rotational shifts. Rotational shifts allow companies to continue to operate around the clock without putting all of the burden of evening or night shifts on the same employees.
- Professional services: Promote remote work and time-off policies. People in high-tension, demanding work environments need time to recover and recharge.
5. Foster a positive workplace culture
- Healthcare: Build support-focused and collaborative teams. Work stress is a major driver of healthcare industry turnover. Supportive teams promote mental well-being, connections between colleagues, and a more positive culture overall.
- Financial services: Promote teamwork and ethical practices. An organization’s values help it stand out from the crowd when talented, driven people are looking for a place to land.
- Manufacturing: Prioritize safety and involve employees in decisions. Listening to employees is one of the most powerful actions an organization can take to improve retention.
- Professional services: Emphasize mentorship and open communication. Fostering strong connections between colleagues creates a workplace worth committing to.
Benefits of reducing turnover
Investing in reducing turnover produces results across your workplace and your bottom line. The ROI of turnover reduction can include cost savings, improved workplace morale, and better customer satisfaction.
As mentioned earlier in this blog, the cost of a single voluntary departure can range from half to four times the employee’s annual salary. Those costs include direct recruitment costs, training, HR resources, and lost productivity. Building a better workplace culture pays dividends in terms of employee motivation, productivity, and engagement. Customer satisfaction benefits from greater continuity in your workplace and the expertise that comes with experience. That has a direct impact on your bottom line.
Vistex, a software company with 1,500+ employees operating across 17 locations, has had huge success reducing turnover thanks to Achievers. The company ran an employee engagement survey that uncovered an eagerness among their employees for a way to recognize each other. After partnering with Achievers, the turnover at Vistex decreased by 22%.
Cut costs and optimize growth by investing in lower turnover
Industries like healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, and professional services bear the brunt of high attrition costs, but no organization is immune. While turnover has slowed since the Great Resignation, it remains a pressing challenge — especially in high-stress fields and competitive talent markets.
The key to reducing turnover lies in strategic investment. Companies that prioritize employee engagement, meaningful recognition, career development, data-driven decision-making, workplace flexibility, and a strong company culture will see measurable improvements in retention and performance.
Take control of turnover before it impacts your bottom line. The Achievers Employee Experience Platform provides powerful insights, real-time feedback, and industry-leading recognition frequency to help you build a thriving, loyal workforce. Transform your workplace culture and keep top talent where they belong.
