This report highlights the topical issue of employers’ experiences with retention issues providing insights across industries and occupation groups. It builds on findings first published in March 2024, now incorporating additional data collected between February and May 2024 from the Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey (REOS). It provides an overview of the issue, staff replacement rates, reasons for replacing staff, impacts on businesses and strategies used to retain staff.

Over the last few years, more workers changed jobs compared with years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the recent increased rate of job mobility over 2021–2023, it is still relatively low compared to earlier decades and has generally been trending downwards since the late 1980s. The recent decline in the annual job turnover rate coincides with a downturn in job advertisements from the highs in 2022.

Key findings

• Employees moving to other job opportunities and the nature of the work itself are among the top reasons staff are leaving their job.
• High staff turnover is hurting productivity and pushing up recruitment and training costs.
• Many employers are responding with higher wages or incentives like free accommodation to keep staff on board.
• Nearly one in four employers who recently hired to replace staff said they’re replacing workers at least every six months.