Some industries are always prone to more turnover than others. For an extreme example, consider a seasonal business catering to tourists and employing minimum wage-earning high-school or college students compared with a tenured professor.
But within these relatively monolithic categories and notwithstanding general rules that stand the test of time, there are always variations brought about by macroeconomic factors like, say, pandemics, spikes in inflation, or global unrest.
Some Industries Faring Better Than Others
New research helps shine a light on which industries are being hit the hardest in today’s economic environment. The new study from document management tool SmallPDF analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to score every industry’s quit rates—the percentage of total employees quitting in an industry every month—and quit levels, which measure how many employees quit in total each month.
Hospitality Industries Hit Hardest
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the accommodation and food services industry, including fast-food workers, waiters, and chefs, was the hardest hit. This industry saw an average of 5.8% of its workforce leave between April and August 2022, when the study was conducted. More than 773,600 employees left every month on average during the study. August 2022 saw 128,000 more employees quit than the number who left their jobs in August 2021, indicating a massive change in staffing.
Retail Comes in Second
The industry in second place is probably also not much of a surprise: retail. This industry includes jobs like cashiers, customer service representatives, and stock clerks. It saw an average of 600,400 employees quitting every month between April and August 2022 and an average quit rate of 3.82%. Roughly 109,000 fewer employees quit this August compared with August 2021 in the industry.
The arts, entertainment, and recreation industry and the professional and business services industry rounded out the top four.
The industries facing the highest levels of turnover right now probably aren’t surprising, but the levels of turnover are significant even for these sectors that traditionally face high attrition.
Lin Grensing-Pohal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.