A study by LinkedIn has determined that the accounting profession has the third-lowest average turnover rate in the country: 9.4 percent, CPA Practice Advisor reported. LinkedIn’s analysis was based on the period between July 2021 and June 2022. Only administration (7.8 percent) and operations (8.8 percent had lower rates. 

LinkedIn defined turnover as follows: “For the purpose of this analysis, an organization’s turnover rate is calculated as the number of total departures over the past year, divided by the average number of employees in that same timeframe. The data is drawn from members updating their current employer on their LinkedIn profile.” 

“For that reason, you can take the absolute numbers in this story with a grain of salt,” Linkedin cautioned. “The rates reported here may be below actual turnover, due to a lag between someone’s actual departure and when they update their profile. The data here is still drawn from hundreds of millions of members and reveals meaningful patterns; it’s just that they are best understood directionally, rather than absolutely.” 

LinkedIn found that the profession with the highest turnover rate is human resources (14.6 percent), followed by research (13.1 percent), product management (13 percent), marketing (12.9 percent), and consulting (11.6 percent). The average turnover rate for all professions is 10.6 percent. 

Linked noted that professions with “low turnover functions deal more with rigid institutional systems: budgets, regulations, business cycles, etc. Conversely, most of the high turnover functions feel more consultative, interpretive, or interpersonal. Rather than dealing primarily with fixed systems, they focus more on emotions, understanding, and strategic decisions.”