worker, with voluntary turnover costing American employers $617 billion in 2018 alone. The Work Institute estimates it costs $15,000 to lose a U.S. Think of all the money and time you spend on hiring just one candidate there’s the recruitment agencies, job fairs, interviews, and then onboarding and training. How can a high turnover rate harm your company? That said, in general, you want to keep your turnover as low as possible. So, if your business consists mostly of entry-level jobs filled by recent college grads, for instance, don’t be alarmed if your turnover rate is substantially higher than the national average. But newbies to the workforce (26 and younger) had the highest at 8%. It’s important to be aware of how your workforce demographic can skew your turnover rate: For example, the ADP Research Institute found that when you look at average monthly turnover by age, people nearing retirement (ages 56-65) had the lowest at 1.6%. The number alone doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story. No, a high turnover rate doesn’t always mean there’s something wrong with your company. Government had the lowest turnover rate of 1.5%, while leisure and hospitality had the highest at 6.1%. To illustrate this: The average turnover rate across all industries for the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was 3.6% for February 2020. What is considered a “high turnover rate” varies greatly by industry. You can calculate your turnover rate by taking the number of employees who left your organization during a defined period (e.g., one month or one year) and dividing it by the average number of employees during that period. Turnover rate refers to the number of workers that left (voluntarily and involuntarily) a company as a percentage of the total workforce.