Employees 20% More Likely to Voluntarily Leave Jobs this Year

Employees this year, on average, voluntarily left their jobs 20.2% more than in 2020, according to research by Namely, an HR tech platform for midsize firms. In comparison, employees voluntarily left their jobs on average 9.6% less in 2020 than in 2019.

“Workers are leaving their jobs at rates higher than previously seen,” Namely CEO Larry Dunivan said.

“For employers, this raises the probability of derailing the business,” Dunivan continued. “For employees, they might find the grass isn’t necessarily greener. In any case, employee engagement is a primary concern for employers of choice, and our research has uncovered some surprising trends. No one is immune from these mass resignations, as even those employees who have seniority are leaving voluntarily.”

Service workers in 2021 were 43.8% more likely to voluntarily leave their jobs than in 2019. On the other end of the spectrum, sales workers had a voluntary attrition rate 8.8% below the average increase for all workers.



Namely’s research is based on more than 122,000 termination events from 2019 through this year.