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- Education and hospitality have the highest summer turnover rates relative to other months.The youngest workers are the most volatile in employee separations.If you're paid less, you're more likely to leave, ADP Research Institute found.
Summer is the season of backyard barbecues, beach days, and baseball games, and if you're in one of these industries, it might be the season of leaving your job.
Data from ADP Research Institute shows that job turnover during the summer months, defined as June through September, jumps compared to the non-summer months. Across all sectors, summer attrition rates, including both voluntary quits and involuntary separations like layoffs, were 0.42 percentage points higher than non-summer rates in the US over the past five years.
The education and leisure and hospitality sectors had the biggest jump in workers leaving their jobs in the summer months. Traditionally high turnover industries like retail see loftier rates, but are far more constant throughout the year.
Education trumps the list with the highest percentage point difference between summer and the rest of the year turnover rate. As the school year closes out, many teachers are laid off or quit to work in different industries for the summer.
The most recent jobs report from the federal government was fueled by what looks like a change to that typical pattern. After seasonal adjustment, which aims to account for those summer layoffs, over 63,000 jobs were added in state and local government education in June.
"Probably what's going on here is that there were smaller-than-expected summer layoffs in the education sector, which could be about teachers or it could also be about support staff, like school bus drivers or custodial staff," Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor, said about the June jobs report.
Leisure and hospitality is second on the list, and has the highest summer layoff rate overall. In May, the industry had strong growth thanks to restaurants and bars hiring more employees.
Those in the retail trade have some of the most consistent rates of turnover year-round, with smaller rises in summer months.
Office workers also saw an increase of over half a percentage point in summer turnover compared to the rest of the year. Those in accounting, marketing, sales, and other business services face trends of impending summer layoffs, ADP Research Institute found.
White-collar workers deal with office paranoia year-round, and some look for signs like a manager asking to speak on short notice, or a companywide meeting suddenly appearing on a calendar.
ADP Research Institute found that seasonal and part-time jobs have some of the highest turnover across sectors. Over the summer, full-time employees had a 3.14% turnover rate versus part-time workers' 5.58% rate of attrition.
In leisure and hospitality, the 10 most visited states' turnover rates at 4.61% were shadowed by the 7.69% turnover rate in less preferred destinations. Places like New York, Florida, and California have higher worker retention rates than West Virginia, North Dakota, and Idaho.
"Given tourism's important economic role in these highly visited states, employment in leisure and hospitality likely isn't as seasonal as it might be elsewhere," the ADP Research Institute report read.
Entry-level roles, most common in leisure and hospitality and retail, also have the steepest turnover rates. Those making between $10,000 and $30,000 have an almost 7% turnover rate. People entering these roles are also some of the youngest workers, just finishing school and looking for a summer job. Workers aged 15 to 28 years old, had higher turnover rates than those 29 and older.
Were you laid off, or did you find a new job over the summer? Contact this reporter at bdelk@insider.com.
