Employee offboarding is the last part of the employee lifecycle, and it is where security gaps, lost knowledge and damaged relationships tend to appear. The numbers below show how often people leave, what poor exits cost, and why a repeatable process matters.
We kept only figures we could trace to the original publisher, such as Gallup, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Verizon and APQC. Each one links to its source, with the year it was published. Some come from software vendors’ own surveys; we name them so you can judge for yourself.
Key offboarding statistics at a glance
- U.S. workers quit 3.1 million jobs in August 2026 alone (BLS).
- Only 34% of organizations remove a leaver’s system access on their last day (IDSA).
- 83% of employees say they kept using a former employer’s accounts after leaving (Beyond Identity).
- Replacing a leader costs about 200% of their salary (Gallup).
- Boomerang rehires were 35% of new hires in March 2025 (ADP Research).
Last checked: October 2026. Every figure below links to the original report.
36 Employee Offboarding Statistics for 2026
Turnover: How Often People Leave and Why
- U.S. workers quit 3.1 million jobs in August 2026, a quits rate of 1.9%. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026)
- Total U.S. separations (quits, layoffs and other exits) were 5.1 million in August 2026, a rate of 3.2%. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026)
- 51% of U.S. employees are watching for or actively seeking a new job. (Gallup, 2024)
- 42% of employees who left voluntarily said their manager or organization could have prevented it. (Gallup, 2024)
- 45% of voluntary leavers said no manager or leader discussed their satisfaction or future with them in their last three months. (Gallup, 2024)
- Among U.S. workers who quit in 2021, 63% cited low pay, 63% no chance to advance and 57% feeling disrespected. (Pew Research Center, 2022)
The Cost of Departures
- Replacing an employee costs about 200% of salary for leaders and managers, 80% for technical staff and 40% for frontline workers. (Gallup, 2024)
- When ex-employees kept company equipment, the average value was $1,963 per incident. (Capterra, 2023)
- Insider risk costs organizations an average of $17.4 million a year, up from $16.2 million in 2023. (DTEX Systems and Ponemon Institute, 2025)
- Insider incidents take an average of 81 days to contain. (DTEX Systems and Ponemon Institute, 2025)
Access Removal and Data Security
- Only 34% of organizations remove a typical worker’s system access on the day they leave; about half take three days or longer. (Identity Defined Security Alliance, 2021)
- Only 35% of organizations automate removing access when workers leave. (Identity Defined Security Alliance, 2021)
- 83% of surveyed employees said they kept accessing accounts from a former employer after leaving. (Beyond Identity, 2022)
- 56% of surveyed ex-employees admitted using that continued access to harm their former employer. (Beyond Identity, 2022)
- 74% of business leaders said a former employee breaching their digital security had hurt their company. (Beyond Identity, 2022)
- 76% of IT leaders agree employee offboarding is a significant security threat. (Torii, 2021)
- 71% of organizations don’t know what or how much sensitive data departing employees take with them. (Code42, 2022)
- Organizations face a 37% chance of losing intellectual property when an employee leaves. (Code42, 2022)
- Departing employees caused 87% of unusual file exfiltration across cloud accounts over a nine-month period. (Proofpoint, 2024)
- A human element was involved in 62% of data breaches, up from 60% the year before. (Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 2026)
- 42% of enterprises saw unauthorized SaaS or cloud access in at least 5% of their departures. (Oomnitza, 2022)
Equipment and Offboarding Processes
- 71% of HR staff say at least one departing employee didn’t return company-owned equipment. (Capterra, 2023)
- 59% of those HR staff said the unreturned equipment held confidential or sensitive information. (Capterra, 2023)
- Hybrid and remote workers were 17% more likely than on-site staff to keep company equipment. (Capterra, 2023)
- 27% of enterprises lose more than 10% of their technology assets when workers leave. (Oomnitza, 2022)
- 48% of enterprise IT leaders reported gaps in, or no, automated offboarding workflows. (Oomnitza, 2022)
- 70% of surveyed employees said a formal offboarding process was the norm when they left a job. (Beyond Identity, 2022)
Exit Interviews and the Exit Experience
- 86% of HR staff say at least one departing employee skipped their exit interview, and 70% say several did. (Capterra, 2023)
- Only 45% of exiting employees were satisfied with how their organization handled their exit. (Gallup, 2018)
- Employees with a positive exit experience are 2.9 times more likely to recommend their former employer. (Gallup, 2019)
Boomerang Employees and Employer Brand
- Rehired former employees made up 35% of new hires in March 2025, up from 31% a year earlier. (ADP Research, 2025)
- 43% of people who quit during the pandemic said they were better off in their old job, and 41% of those who hadn’t gone back would consider returning. (UKG, 2022)
- 83% of job seekers are likely to research company reviews and ratings before applying. (Glassdoor, 2023)
Knowledge Transfer
- Only 30% of organizations capture retiring employees’ knowledge most of the time or always; 41% rarely or never do. (APQC, 2025)
- 74% of organizations transfer retiring employees’ knowledge person to person. (APQC, 2025)
- 64% of IT professionals say their organization has already lost knowledge when people left. (Sinequa, 2022)
What These Numbers Mean for Your Offboarding Process
Most of the risk in an exit comes from steps that nobody owns: access that stays open, laptops that never come back and knowledge that leaves with the person. Three habits cover most of it:
- Give every step an owner and a deadline. Access removal, equipment return and handover should each have a named person and a due date, ideally the last working day.
- Plan the handover early. Start knowledge transfer as soon as notice is given, not in the final week.
- Ask why people leave, and act on it. Gallup’s data suggests many departures are preventable, so use exit interviews to find patterns.
For a step-by-step plan, see our guide to the employee offboarding process. To track each step with owners, deadlines and an audit trail, explore Newployee’s employee offboarding software.
Employee Offboarding Statistics: FAQ
In August 2026, U.S. workers quit 3.1 million jobs, a quits rate of 1.9%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics JOLTS report. Total separations, including layoffs, were 5.1 million.
Not quickly enough. An Identity Defined Security Alliance survey found only 34% of organizations remove a typical worker’s access on the day they leave, and about half take three days or longer.
Gallup estimates replacement costs at about 200% of salary for leaders and managers, 80% for technical professionals and 40% for frontline employees.
We last checked every figure in October 2026 and link each one to its original source. Some useful studies are a few years old; we show the year next to each figure so you can weigh it.
