Employee Offboarding and Turnover Statistics for 2026
| Key Takeaways | |
| Official turnover is falling in Singapore and Japan. Singapore's average monthly resignation rate fell to 1.2% in 2025, from 1.3% in 2024, and Japan's annual separation rate fell to 13.7%. | |
| Southeast Asia attrition still runs in double digits. Aon's 2026 study of more than 1,200 businesses reports 16.6% attrition, with Malaysia highest at 17.4%. | |
| Quits are still most US separations: 38.0 million of the 62.8 million in 2025, against 21.2 million layoffs and discharges. | |
| Announced job cuts in the US rose 58% to 1,206,374 in 2025, then fell 39% in the first nine months of 2026, with artificial intelligence (AI) cited in about 21% of them. | |
| Offboarding access is a security gap. In a survey of organizations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, 94% say they can revoke a leaver's access within 24 hours, yet 35% had delays or failures doing it in the past two years. | |
In This Guide
A resignation rate in Singapore, a separation rate in Japan, and attrition in Southeast Asia are three different numbers, and none of them tells you when each of your own leavers starts a clock on final pay, notice, tax clearance, and system access. If you hire across Asia, you meet several of those clocks in the same year, each with its own deadline.
What is the employee turnover rate in 2026? There is no single figure, because each country measures it differently. Singapore reports a monthly resignation rate of 1.0% for the second quarter of 2026, Japan an annual separation rate of 13.7% for 2025, and Aon's 2026 study reports Southeast Asia attrition of 16.6%.
1. Employee Turnover Rates by Country
Singapore and the United States publish monthly rates, Japan an annual one, and Australia the share of workers who changed employer in a year, so the rows are not directly comparable. A separation is any departure, whether a resignation, dismissal, or retirement; an accession is a hire.
| Country | Measure | Latest figure | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore | Average monthly resignation rate | 1.2% (2025); 1.0% (2Q 2026) | 2025 and 2Q 2026 | Ministry of Manpower |
| Singapore | Average monthly recruitment rate | 1.8% (2025); 1.4% (2Q 2026) | 2025 and 2Q 2026 | Ministry of Manpower |
| Japan | Annual separation rate | 13.7% | 2025 | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare |
| Taiwan | Monthly separation rate, industry and services | 2.3% | June 2026 | Ministry of Labor |
| South Korea | Separations in the month (a count, not a rate) | 1,036,000, up 16.5% year on year | August 2026 | Ministry of Employment and Labor |
| United States | Total separations rate, monthly | 3.2% (August 2026); 3.3% annual average (2025) | 2025 and August 2026 | Bureau of Labor Statistics |
| Australia | Job mobility rate (changed employer in the year) | 7.2% | Year to February 2026 | Australian Bureau of Statistics |
Table sources: Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) covers private establishments with at least 25 employees plus the public sector. Its 2Q 2026 figures are seasonally adjusted, and its 2025 annual rates are simple averages of quarters that are not. Taiwan's rate is for the last month of the quarter only, and the United States figures for August 2026 are preliminary.
Singapore
Singapore's labor turnover has drifted down for a decade. The average monthly resignation rate was 1.4% in 2023, 1.3% in 2024, and 1.2% in 2025, and the recruitment rate fell from 2.2% to 1.8% over the same years. In the second quarter of 2026, MOM reported a resignation rate of 1.0% and a recruitment rate of 1.4%.
Turnover is lower among professionals, managers, executives, and technicians (PMETs). In the fourth quarter of 2025, PMETs had a recruitment rate of 1.5% and a resignation rate of 0.9%, against 2.6% and 1.6% for clerical, sales, and service workers.
Japan
Japan's Survey on Employment Trends covers establishments with five or more regular employees. In 2025, the accession rate was 14.7% and the separation rate 13.7%, with 7,526,800 people joining and 7,052,600 leaving.
Part-time workers move far more than full-time workers. The separation rate was 11.4% for full-time employees and 19.9% for part-time employees.
Taiwan, South Korea, the United States, and Australia
Taiwan's Ministry of Labor reported an accession rate of 2.42% and a separation rate of 2.3% for June 2026, with services (2.54%) recording a higher separation rate than industry (1.94%).
South Korea recorded 1,036,000 separations in August 2026, up 16.5% on a year earlier, against 1,008,000 accessions.
In the United States, there were 3.1 million quits in August 2026, a quits rate of 1.9%, and 1.6 million layoffs and discharges. Across 2025, total separations were 62.8 million, an annual average rate of 3.3%, and hires were roughly level with them.
In Australia, 7.2% of employed people changed employer in the year to February 2026, down from 7.7%. Younger workers moved most: 12.0% of people aged 15 to 24 changed jobs.
2. Attrition and Intent to Leave in Asia-Pacific
Aon's 2026 Salary Increase and Turnover Study reports Southeast Asia attrition of 16.6%. Fielded from July to September across more than 1,200 businesses, it is not directly comparable with the monthly official rates above.
| Market | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southeast Asia | 17.4% | 17.5% | 16.6% |
| Malaysia | 15.9% | 18.2% | 17.4% |
| Philippines | 19.1% | 20.0% | 17.3% |
| Singapore | 16.7% | 19.3% | 16.8% |
| Thailand | 16.6% | 17.2% | 16.4% |
| Vietnam | 15.5% | 15.0% | 16.2% |
| Indonesia | 20.8% | 15.0% | 15.5% |
Table source: Aon, September 2026.
By industry, Aon reports the highest attrition in consulting, business, and community services at 21.5%, followed by manufacturing at 17.9% and financial services at 17.7%. In India, Aon's survey of more than 1,400 organizations found attrition fell to 16.2% in 2025, from 17.7% in 2024.
Intent to leave runs higher. In Aon's 2025 employee sentiment study of more than 9,000 employees across 23 geographies:
- Singapore: 67% of employees might or will seek new employment in the next 12 months.
- Philippines: 64% are moving employers or might seek new employment within 12 months.
- Hong Kong: 63% plan to switch or are considering it within the year.
- Global: 60%.
Gallup's World Poll found 50% of employees globally were watching for or actively seeking a new job in 2025. Among Gallup's Asia-Pacific regions, engagement is lowest in East Asia at 18%, against 25% in Southeast Asia. These regional figures pool three years of World Poll data to 2025, while the global engagement figure of 20% covers 2025 alone.
3. Layoffs and Retrenchments in 2025 and 2026
US job-cut announcements rose in 2025 and fell in 2026, while Singapore's retrenchments, its term for layoffs, rose between the first and second quarters of 2026.
United States. Challenger, Gray & Christmas counted 1,206,374 announced job cuts in 2025, up 58% from 761,358 in 2024. Government led with 308,167 announced cuts, and technology led the private sector with 154,445.
Through September 2026, announcements fell 39% to 573,195, and AI was cited in 120,136 of them, about 21%, making it the leading reason so far this year. Announcements are not completed layoffs: the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counted 21.2 million layoffs and discharges across 2025, an annual average rate of 1.1%.
Singapore. Retrenchments totaled 14,490 in 2025, or 6.3 per 1,000 employees, up from 5.9 in 2024. Business reorganization or restructuring accounted for 75.2% of retrenchments in the fourth quarter of 2025 (employers can give more than one reason), and across 2025, about 9 in 10 retrenched residents received retrenchment benefits. Retrenchments then rose from 3,830 in the first quarter of 2026 to 4,620 in the second.
Australia. 257,900 people were retrenched in the year to February 2026, an annual retrenchment rate of 1.8%.
Each retrenchment carries its own notice, severance, and final pay rules, which differ sharply between markets. Our country comparison of severance, notice and final pay sets them out for Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States, and Germany.
4. Why Employees Leave
In Japan and the United States, most separations start with the employee.
- Japan: the separation rate for personal reasons, which include marriage, childcare, and caregiving, was 10.2% in 2025, against 0.9% for employer-side reasons such as business circumstances. By our calculation, personal reasons account for about three in four separations.
- United States: quits made up 60.6% of total separations in 2025.
- Australia: of the 2.1 million people who left or lost a job in the year to February 2026, the most common reason was to get a better job or for a change (26% of men and 23% of women), and 12% were retrenched.
Randstad's Workmonitor 2026, a survey of 27,062 workers in 35 markets, found 46% cite work-life balance as the key reason they stay in a role, against 23% who cite pay. Pay remains the top draw to a new job for 81%.
Gallup found 40% of employees globally experienced a lot of stress the previous day in 2025. In East Asia, on three years of pooled data, the figure is 46%.
5. What Replacing a Leaver Costs
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) 2025 benchmarking survey of 2,371 United States members put the average cost per hire at USD 5,475 for non-executive roles and USD 35,879 for executives.
Gallup also estimates that low engagement cost the world economy about USD 10 trillion in lost productivity in 2025, or 9% of global gross domestic product (GDP).
6. Offboarding Statistics: Access, Final Pay and Exit Filings
A study released by the FIDO Alliance and HID in June 2026 surveyed 500 IT and cybersecurity decision makers at organizations with 150 or more employees in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, with no Asia-Pacific respondents:
- 94% said they can revoke all physical and digital access within 24 hours of an employee leaving
- 35% experienced delays or failures doing exactly that in the past two years
- 70% experienced at least one identity-related security incident of any kind
When someone leaves a cross-border team, the Employer of Record (EOR), the company that legally employs the worker on your behalf, or your local entity has to close the employment under local law. Depending on the market and circumstances, this may include notice or pay in lieu of notice, final wages, unused leave, social insurance or pension updates, tax clearance, and required employee documents. Our employee offboarding checklist walks through each step.
Final pay deadlines in five markets
Each market sets its own final pay deadline, and some, such as California, penalize late payment.
| Country | Final pay deadline | Unused annual leave paid out? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taiwan | Wages immediately when the contract ends; severance within 30 days | Yes | Labor Standards Act and Enforcement Rules, Article 9 |
| Singapore | Employer termination: last day, or within three working days if payment is not possible then. Resignation with notice served: last day; without notice served: within seven days. | Yes, unless dismissed for misconduct | MOM: Paying salary |
| Hong Kong | Within seven days; severance payment within two months of the employee's claim | Yes | Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57) |
| United States | Set by each state; immediately on a dismissal in California | Depends on the state | Department of Labor and California DIR |
| Germany | At the end of the last pay period | Yes, where leave cannot be taken before the end | Civil Code, Section 614 and Federal Leave Act, Section 7 |
In California, final pay that is willfully late carries a waiting-time penalty of a day's wages for each day, up to 30 days.
Tax clearance can hold back final pay
In Singapore, if tax clearance is required for a foreign employee or permanent resident, file Form IR21 at least one month before employment ends and withhold all money due once the cessation is known. Exemptions apply, including for permanent residents staying in Singapore who provide a Letter of Undertaking, subject to IRAS conditions. In Hong Kong, file Form IR56G at least one month before a taxable employee leaves for more than one month, except for frequent business travel. Withhold payments for one month from filing or until IRD issues a letter of release, whichever is earlier.
How Slasify Handles Offboarding for You
When an employee employed through us leaves, we close the employment under the law of their country and keep you informed at each step:
- Notice periods and severance calculated under local law
- Final pay and unused leave settled on the statutory deadlines
- Tax clearance filings, such as Singapore's IR21 and Hong Kong's IR56G, on their deadlines
- Social insurance and pension deregistration filed with the local authorities
- Final payslips and employment documents issued to the employee
Every client has a named account manager from day one, who coordinates the exit with your team. We employ through our own entities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and mainland China, and support hiring and payroll in more than 150 countries. See our Employer of Record and Global Payroll services, or our global payroll statistics for the wider payroll picture.
Employee Turnover FAQs: Offboarding in 2026
Q1. What is the average employee turnover rate in 2026?
There is no single global rate. Singapore's average monthly resignation rate was 1.0% in the second quarter of 2026, the US total separations rate was 3.2% in August 2026, and Aon's 2026 study reports Southeast Asia attrition of 16.6%.
Q2. Which country has the highest employee turnover in Southeast Asia?
Malaysia, at 17.4% in Aon's 2026 study, followed by the Philippines at 17.3% and Singapore at 16.8%, among the six surveyed markets.
Q3. What percentage of employees want to leave their job?
Gallup found 50% of employees globally were watching for or actively seeking a new job in 2025. In Aon's 2025 study, 67% of employees in Singapore might or will seek new employment within 12 months.
Q4. How many layoffs were there in 2025?
US employers announced 1,206,374 job cuts in 2025, up 58% on 2024. Singapore recorded 14,490 retrenchments, or 6.3 per 1,000 employees.
Q5. Why do employees leave their jobs?
In Japan and the United States, most separations start with the employee. In Japan, personal reasons drove a separation rate of 10.2% in 2025, against 0.9% for employer-side reasons, and in the United States quits were 60.6% of separations. In Australia, the most common reason was to get a better job or for a change.
Q6. How quickly should a leaver's access be revoked?
On the last day. In a survey of organizations in the US, Canada, the UK, France, and Germany, 94% say they can do it within 24 hours, but 35% had delays or failures in the past two years, so build revocation into the exit checklist.
Q7. Can Slasify handle offboarding for employees in Asia?
Yes, for employees employed through us. We act as the legal employer through our own entities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and mainland China, settle final pay and unused leave on local deadlines, and file the deregistrations and tax clearances. Book a call with our team to plan a specific exit.
Sources
Official Labor Market and Turnover Statistics: Singapore: Ministry of Manpower: Labour Market Report, Fourth Quarter 2025; Singapore: Ministry of Manpower: Labour Market Report, Second Quarter 2026; Japan: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: 2025 Survey on Employment Trends; Taiwan: Ministry of Labor: Job Vacancy Survey, June 2026; South Korea: Ministry of Employment and Labor: Labor Force Survey at Establishments, August 2026; United States: Bureau of Labor Statistics: Job Openings and Labor Turnover, August 2026; United States: Bureau of Labor Statistics: January 2026 Release, Including Annual 2025 Turnover Data; Australia: Australian Bureau of Statistics: Job Mobility, February 2026.
Attrition and Employee Sentiment in Asia: Aon: Southeast Asia Salary Increase and Turnover Study, September 2026; Aon: 2026 Southeast Asia Study, Original Presentation, Methodology and Turnover Breakdown; Aon: India Salary and Attrition Survey, February 2026; Aon: Singapore Employee Sentiment Study, February 2025; Aon: Hong Kong Employee Sentiment Study, February 2025; Aon: Philippines Employee Sentiment Study, February 2025.
US Job-Cut Announcements: Challenger, Gray & Christmas: 2025 Year-End Report; Challenger, Gray & Christmas: September 2026 Report.
Employee Retention, Engagement and Workplace Priorities: Gallup: Employee Retention and Attraction Indicator; Gallup: State of the Global Workplace 2026, Global Data; Gallup: State of the Global Workplace 2026, Regional and Country Data; Gallup: Global Employee Engagement Continues Decline; Randstad: Workmonitor 2026.
Hiring Costs and Offboarding Security: SHRM: 2025 Benchmarking Reports, Recruiting Costs and Other HR Metrics; FIDO Alliance and HID: Enterprise Identity Security Study, June 2026.
Taiwan: Labor Standards Act; Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act: Including Article 9 on Final Wage Payment.
Singapore: Employment Act 1968; Ministry of Manpower: Paying Salary and Final Salary Deadlines; Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore: Tax Clearance for Employees (Form IR21).
Hong Kong: Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57); Inland Revenue Department: Tax Clearance When an Employee Leaves Hong Kong (PAM46).
United States: US Department of Labor: Last Paycheck; California Department of Industrial Relations: Paydays, Pay Periods and Final Wages.
Germany: German Civil Code: Section 614, Due Date of Remuneration; Federal Leave Act: Section 7, Timing, Carryover and Payment in Lieu of Leave.
Slasify Services: Slasify: Employer of Record; Slasify: Global Payroll.