Bloomberg BNA Finds Turnover Stable, Job Absences Up in Q4 2012

Bloomberg BNA’s quarterly employer survey has found that employee turnover remained stagnant during Q4 2012 as rates of separation for the year indicates little to no change in the number of worker departures. Job absences began to rise in late 2012 after having declined throughout the summer. Even as the national turnover rate stabilized higher than the record lows experienced in 2009, separations are running far below typical levels before the recession.

Median monthly separations averaged 0.7 percent of the workforce from October through December 2012, though this number does not include layoffs or job eliminations. This average median rate was the same rate recorded in 2010 and 2011. Turnover rates in 2012 outpaced rates in 2011 for about half of the year, but the higher rates were compensated for by much lower employee separation during the summer.

The median rate of unscheduled job absences averaged 0.8 percent of scheduled workdays during Q4 2012, an increase of 0.2 percent from the previous quarter. The end-of-the-year increase is presumed to reflect the typical pattern of increased absences during the colder months, an early flu season, and/or a recovering economy. The median monthly rate of unscheduled absences sat at 0.8 percent in October and November, then rose to 0.9 percent in December. The 12-month average of median absence rates in 2012 was 0.7 percent of scheduled workdays, up from 0.6 percent in 2011, though considerably lower than recorded levels prior to the recession.