The 2025 Work Institute Retention Report shows turnover remains high and costly, with about 40 million U.S. employees quitting in 2024 and most departures driven by preventable issues. The top reasons are career development (still #1), health and family pressures, work-life balance, and problems with management, while pay is described as a signal of deeper problems rather than the root cause. First-year turnover is especially expensive, often delivering no return on hiring and training. The report argues unmanaged turnover is essentially a fiduciary failure and says high retention comes from deliberate action: building strong managers, clear career paths, flexibility and wellness support, ethical and compliant cultures, and acting on insights from exit and stay interviews instead of relying on feel-good survey scores.

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