What is the industry standard for turnover rate?
Michael Gray
Updated on April 04, 2026
What Is a Good Employee Retention Rate? According to a 2016 Compensation Force study, the average total turnover for all industries is 17.8 percent. Rates varied by industry, however. They were relatively low in the utilities and insurance industries, 8.8 percent and 12.2 percent respectively.
What is the average turnover rate for 2020?
57.3%
According to the 2021 Bureau of Labor Statics report, the annual total separations rate or turnover rate in 2020 was 57.3%.
What is the average employee retention rate by industry?
As mentioned earlier, 10% is a good figure to aim for as an average employee turnover rate – 90% is the average employee retention rate. With that said, the 10% who are leaving should be a majority of low performers – ideally, low performers who are able to be replaced with engaged, high-performing team members.
How do you calculate industry turnover?
A business can find its own turnover rate by dividing the number of separations by the average number of employees in the business. Then, multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage. The turnover rate shows a company how many employees leave within a time period, like a month, quarter, or year.
What is the difference between retention rate and turnover rate?
Retention rate is often calculated on an annual basis, dividing the number of employees with one year or more of service by the number of staff in those positions one year ago. Turnover rate is often defined as the number of separations divided by the average number of employees during that same time period.
What is the ideal employee retention rate?
Generally speaking, an employee retention rate of 90 percent or higher is considered good. Industries with the highest retention rates includes government, finance, insurance, and education, while the lowest rates can be seen in the hotel, retail, and food industries.
What is a good retention ratio?
For most industries, average eight-week retention is below 20 percent. For products in the media or finance industry, an eight-week retention rate over 25 percent is considered elite. For the SaaS and e-commerce industries, over 35 percent retention is considered elite.
What is a good employee turnover ratio?
Organizations should aim for 10% for an employee turnover rate, but most fall into the range of 12% to 20%. Certain industries report higher employee turnover rates due to the nature of the job.
What is the average employee turnover rate by industry?
Overall, all industries had an average voluntary turnover rate of 12.8%. Looking at the total average turnover rate in 2016, the industry that stood out the most is still the hospitality one, with 28.6%. Then, healthcare had 19.9%, while the banking and finance industry showed a 18.1% total average turnover rate.
Is it good to have a 10% turnover rate?
This 10% should be balanced. This means you shouldn’t allow only top performers to leave and poor performers to stay. When you’re losing a lot of precious employees, your turnover rate is unhealthy. In order to turn it around, you have to remember that a low turnover rate doesn’t necessarily mean good talent management.
Is there a workforce turnover around the world?
The 2019 Workforce Turnover Around the World publication provides actionable information on employee turnover across major world markets.
How to calculate internal turnover in a company?
Internal turnover occurs when an employee leaves their position for a different position in the same company, as is the case when an employee is promoted. You can calculate the rate by dividing the number of employees who left the company by the average number of employees. Then, you multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage.