The employee turnover rate by industry varies widely. In 2025, BLS data shows U.S. employers lost an average of 3.3% of their workforce each month to quits, layoffs and other separations, but that ranged from about 1.4% a month in state and local government to 6.1% in arts, entertainment and recreation. Manufacturing, finance and information sit at the low end, while hospitality, construction and professional services run high.
Key takeaways
- Across all nonfarm industries, the 2025 total separations rate averaged 3.3% per month and the quits rate averaged 2.0% per month.
- Accommodation and food services had the highest quits rate in 2025 (4.2% a month); government and finance had some of the lowest.
- Manufacturing turnover is well below average, with a 2.4% monthly separations rate and a 1.4% quits rate in 2025.
- Quits have cooled every year since 2022, while layoff rates have stayed roughly flat.
- Your own rate is only meaningful when compared to your industry and your role types, not a single universal number.
What is the average employee turnover rate by industry?
The table below uses the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) annual averages for 2025, the latest full year available. BLS reports these as annual average monthly rates: the share of employees who separated in a typical month. We added a final column that multiplies the total separations rate by 12 to give a rough annual turnover figure, since that is how most companies track turnover internally.
| Industry | Total separations rate (monthly avg, 2025) | Quits rate (monthly avg, 2025) | Layoffs and discharges rate (monthly avg, 2025) | Rough annual separations (monthly rate x 12) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total nonfarm (all industries) | 3.3% | 2.0% | 1.1% | about 40% |
| Total private | 3.6% | 2.2% | 1.2% | about 43% |
| Mining and logging | 3.3% | 2.1% | 1.1% | about 40% |
| Construction | 4.0% | 1.8% | 2.1% | about 48% |
| Manufacturing | 2.4% | 1.4% | 0.9% | about 29% |
| Durable goods manufacturing | 2.3% | 1.3% | 0.8% | about 28% |
| Nondurable goods manufacturing | 2.7% | 1.6% | 1.0% | about 32% |
| Wholesale trade | 2.3% | 1.4% | 0.8% | about 28% |
| Retail trade | 3.8% | 2.6% | 1.1% | about 46% |
| Transportation, warehousing and utilities | 4.0% | 2.2% | 1.6% | about 48% |
| Information | 2.8% | 1.3% | 1.3% | about 34% |
| Finance and insurance | 2.1% | 1.3% | 0.6% | about 25% |
| Real estate and rental and leasing | 2.6% | 1.6% | 0.9% | about 31% |
| Professional and business services | 4.6% | 2.3% | 2.0% | about 55% |
| Private educational services | 2.2% | 1.4% | 0.7% | about 26% |
| Health care and social assistance | 2.9% | 2.0% | 0.7% | about 35% |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 6.1% | 2.2% | 3.8% | about 73% |
| Accommodation and food services | 5.5% | 4.2% | 1.1% | about 66% |
| Other services | 3.3% | 2.2% | 1.0% | about 40% |
| Federal government | 1.8% | 0.8% | 0.3% | about 22% |
| State and local government | 1.4% | 0.8% | 0.4% | about 17% |
Two things jump out. First, hospitality and entertainment employers replace a large share of their workforce every year. Second, the industries where most engineers work, like manufacturing, information and professional services, differ sharply from one another. Professional and business services includes staffing and consulting firms, which naturally have more short assignments and more movement.
Recruiter tip: Do not benchmark an engineering team against the all industry average. Industry figures blend hourly, seasonal and salaried roles, so a professional team can look very different from its industry row. Start with your industry, then compare similar roles inside your company and your own trend over the last few years.
What is the difference between quits, layoffs and total separations?
BLS splits turnover into three buckets, and knowing which one is rising tells you very different things. According to the JOLTS definitions:
- Quits are employees who left voluntarily. This is the number most employers mean when they talk about retention problems.
- Layoffs and discharges are involuntary separations started by the employer, including layoffs, firings for cause, position eliminations and the end of seasonal work.
- Other separations include retirements, transfers to other locations, deaths and separations due to disability.
- Total separations is the sum of all three.
Quits are usually the most useful signal for employers because they reflect choices your people make. When quits are high, employees are confident they can find something better. When they fall, people tend to stay put, even if they are not fully engaged.
How do you calculate employee turnover rate?
The basic formula follows the same logic BLS uses: divide the number of separations in a period by the average number of employees in that period, then multiply by 100.
Turnover rate = (separations during the period ÷ average number of employees) x 100
Average employees is usually the headcount at the start of the period plus the headcount at the end, divided by two.
Example: annual turnover for an engineering department
| Step | Figure |
|---|---|
| Headcount on January 1 | 145 |
| Headcount on December 31 | 155 |
| Average headcount ((145 + 155) ÷ 2) | 150 |
| Employees who left during the year (all reasons) | 12 |
| Turnover rate (12 ÷ 150 x 100) | 8% |
| Of those, voluntary quits | 9 |
| Voluntary turnover rate (9 ÷ 150 x 100) | 6% |
This example is hypothetical. To compare with the BLS monthly figures above, divide your annual rate by 12, or multiply the BLS rate by 12. Track voluntary and involuntary turnover separately, and consider a separate measure for new hires who leave within their first 90 days, since early exits usually point to hiring or onboarding problems rather than pay.
For a deeper walkthrough of slicing turnover by team, tenure and manager, see our guide on using employee turnover analysis to improve retention.
Which industries have the highest turnover?
Based on the 2025 BLS rates, the high turnover industries are:
- Arts, entertainment and recreation: 6.1% total separations a month, driven heavily by layoffs and discharges (3.8%), which reflects seasonal and event based work.
- Accommodation and food services: 5.5% a month, with the highest quits rate of any industry at 4.2%.
- Professional and business services: 4.6% a month, with a relatively high layoff rate of 2.0%.
- Construction: 4.0% a month, where project based work pushes layoffs to 2.1%.
- Transportation, warehousing and utilities: 4.0% a month.
If you are searching for “high turnover jobs,” these industries are where to look: hourly, customer facing, seasonal and project based roles churn the most.
Which industries have the lowest turnover?
Government has the lowest separation rates, at 1.4% a month for state and local government. In the private sector, finance and insurance (2.1%), private educational services (2.2%), durable goods manufacturing (2.3%) and wholesale trade (2.3%) had the lowest total separation rates in 2025.
Low turnover is not automatically good news. In manufacturing, for example, low quit rates can hide a future knowledge gap. When experienced engineers and technicians eventually retire, the replacement pipeline has to be ready.
What are the latest employee turnover trends?
The biggest story is the cooling of voluntary quits. The total nonfarm quits rate averaged 2.7% a month in 2021 and 2.8% in 2022, the years often called the Great Resignation. It then fell to 2.4% in 2023, 2.1% in 2024 and 2.0% in 2025 (BLS quits data).
Manufacturing followed the same path even more sharply: its quits rate dropped from 2.4% in 2021 to 1.4% in 2025. Layoffs, meanwhile, stayed close to 1.0% to 1.1% a month across all industries throughout that period. More recent monthly data points the same way: the JOLTS program reported a preliminary seasonally adjusted quits rate of 1.9% for July 2026.
What this means for employers: fewer people are voluntarily leaving, which can make hiring harder because fewer candidates are actively on the market. It also means the people who do leave often have a specific reason, like pay, a poor manager or a lack of growth, that deserves attention. Our roundup of employee retention statistics covers the most common reasons people leave.
Recruiter tip: A low quit environment is the best time to fix retention, not the time to ignore it. When the market heats up again, the teams with clear career paths and competitive pay keep their people. The rest see a wave of resignations all at once.
What is a good employee turnover rate?
There is no single “good” turnover rate that applies to every company. A rate that is healthy for a restaurant would be alarming for an engineering firm. The most reliable approach is to compare your own rate against three things:
- Your industry’s BLS rate from the table above, converted to the same time period as your data.
- Your own history, so you can see whether turnover is trending up or down.
- Voluntary versus involuntary turnover, since a spike in quits means something very different from a planned restructuring.
Some turnover is healthy. It opens promotion paths and brings in new skills. The turnover that hurts most is the loss of high performers and people with hard to replace knowledge. For practical ideas on keeping those people, see our retention strategies for engineering teams.
Frequently asked questions
Is 20% annual turnover high?
Compared with the 2025 BLS averages, 20% is on the low side: using our rough annual figures, every private industry averaged more than that and only state and local government was lower. Keep in mind those averages include hourly and seasonal jobs, so salaried professional teams can run lower than their industry. Your own history is the better test.
Why does BLS report monthly turnover rates instead of annual ones?
JOLTS is a monthly survey, so BLS publishes the average monthly rate for each year. Multiplying by 12 gives a rough annual figure that you can compare with the annual turnover most HR teams track.
Do temp and contract workers count in turnover data?
Not at the client company. JOLTS counts employees of temporary help agencies and outside contractors at the agency that employs them, not at the worksite where they work. That is worth remembering if you use a lot of contract labor.
Does engineering have high turnover?
Many engineers work in manufacturing, information and professional services. Manufacturing and information had lower than average separation rates in 2025, while professional and business services ran higher. Within any company, turnover among engineers is often driven by pay, project quality and manager relationships.
What causes high turnover in the first few months?
Early exits usually trace back to a mismatch between the job described in the interview and the real job, weak onboarding or a poor relationship with a manager. Tracking 90 day turnover separately helps you spot those problems early.
If turnover is leaving gaps on your engineering, IT or supply chain teams, our recruiters can help you backfill fast and hire people who stay. Learn more about our engineering staffing agency services or request talent for your team.
