I’m getting ready to go down to Austin to kick off their annual Austin Human Resource Management Association conference.  I’ll be doing a four hour session (me, on a stage for four hours in front of hundreds of people, and I get paid?), and I was going over my presentation updating a couple of slides.  One updated piece of information shocked me.  For the last three years, the total separation rate for employees averages 3.2%/month or nearly 40% per year.  Yes, four in ten employees don’t have the job they started with a year earlier. 

It gets even uglier.  The average monthly “voluntary separations” (read: quit) is a whopping 2%, meaning 2.75 million employees voluntarily quit their job every month, 91,667 per day, 3,819 per hour, 63 per minute….  ONE PER SECOND, EVERY SECOND, ALL THE TIME.

Where are employees quitting the most?  Well, by geography it’s like this:

1. South - 28% annual voluntary terminations
2. West - 27%
3. Midwest - 22%
4. Northeast - 17%

What about by industry?  From lowest to highest…

1. Government - 8% annual voluntary terminations
2. Education - 14%
3. Financial Activities - 16%
4. Wholesale Trade - 16%
5. Natural Resources/Mining - 17%
6. Manufacturing - 17%
7. Healthcare - 20%
8. Information - 22%
9. Transportation - 27%
10. Professional/Business Services - 28%
11. Construction - 29%
12. Leisure/Hospitality - 52%

Don’t forget, the cost of turnover doesn’t show up anywhere on the profit and loss statement.  Based on these numbers, perhaps it should.

“…Just the Fax Max!”