Quick answer
- US employers made 5.4 million hires in September 2026, a hires rate of 3.4 percent (BLS JOLTS, seasonally adjusted).
- 20.6 percent of wage and salary workers had been with their current employer for 12 months or less in January 2026 (BLS).
- Gallup reports that only 12 percent of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job onboarding.
The most useful employee onboarding statistics are the ones you can trace. In September 2026, US employers made 5.4 million hires, a hires rate of 3.4 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) released November 3, 2026. And in January 2026, 20.6 percent of wage and salary workers had 12 months or less of tenure with their current employer, per the BLS Employee Tenure release. Those two numbers frame the job: onboarding is a process every employer runs constantly, for a workforce where about one in five people is in their first year.
Most employee onboarding statistics pages repeat vendor numbers that cannot be traced to a study. This page takes the opposite approach. Every figure below comes from a federal release or a research page we opened, with the reference period beside it. Where a famous number could not be traced, we say so in a separate section instead of repeating it.
How many people start new jobs
These employee onboarding statistics start with volume. Federal data does not count "onboardings," but JOLTS counts hires, which is the same event. Every hire is a person who needs forms, access, training and a first schedule. All figures here are for September 2026, seasonally adjusted, from the JOLTS release of November 3, 2026.
- Total nonfarm hires were 5.4 million, a rate of 3.4 percent. BLS says hires "changed little."
- Job openings were 7.5 million (4.5 percent), also little changed.
- Total separations were 5.3 million (3.3 percent). Hires slightly exceeded separations, so the workforce was close to steady.
- Quits were 3.4 million (2.1 percent) and layoffs and discharges were 1.6 million (1.0 percent).
Hiring is not spread evenly. The JOLTS industry table (private sector only, so its total differs from the nonfarm figure above) shows that restaurants and hotels hire at about 1.6 times the private-sector rate (6.1 percent against 3.7 percent, Workzenly calculation from BLS data).
In levels, accommodation and food services made 879,000 hires in September 2026, retail trade 704,000 and health care and social assistance 705,000, per the same table.
What this means for employers: if you run a restaurant, store or other high-turnover shop, onboarding is a weekly routine, not an annual project. A process that takes an hour of the manager's time per hire is a real cost at a 6.1 percent monthly hires rate. Standardize it once, with a checklist, and reuse it for every start.
First-year tenure: how many workers are new
BLS does not publish "first-year quit rates." What it does publish, in the Employee Tenure release of September 24, 2026, is how long workers have been with their current employer as of January 2026, from the Current Population Survey.
- The share of wage and salary workers with 12 months or less of tenure was 20.6 percent in January 2026, down from 22.2 percent in January 2024.
- That is a drop of 1.6 percentage points in two years (Workzenly calculation from the two published figures).
- Median tenure was 4.1 years in January 2026, up from 3.9 years in January 2024.
- Among workers ages 16 to 19, 74.1 percent had 12 months or less with their employer, compared with 9.2 percent of workers ages 55 to 64.
Read the 20.6 percent carefully. It counts everyone who started their current job in the past year, including people who were hired and stayed. It is not a share of new hires who quit. It does show how large the group is that employers are still bringing up to speed.
The other side of the picture is the flow. In September 2026 the national quit rate was 2.1 percent (3.4 million quits), but in accommodation and food services the private-sector quit rate was 5.0 percent, against 2.3 percent for the private sector overall, per JOLTS Table 4.
What this means for employers: where quits run at 5.0 percent a month, the first weeks decide who stays. You cannot reduce that rate with paperwork alone, but a new hire who has their schedule, pay setup and first-day plan before they arrive has fewer reasons to walk away in week one.
Tenure by industry and age
Among employee onboarding statistics, tenure tells you how long your onboarding investment is likely to pay back. The following figures are median years with current employer in January 2026, from BLS Table 5 (industry) and Table 1 (age).
| Industry | Median tenure, January 2026 (years) |
|---|---|
| Manufacturing | 4.9 |
| Educational services | 4.1 |
| Construction | 3.9 |
| Health care and social assistance | 3.8 |
| Professional and business services | 3.8 |
| Retail trade | 3.2 |
| Leisure and hospitality | 2.4 |
| Accommodation and food services | 2.3 |
The all-industry median was 4.1 years. Leisure and hospitality was the lowest private-sector group in the release text at 2.4 years, while the private-sector median was 3.9 years and the public-sector median was 5.6 years. Federal government was 7.0 years.
Younger workers also change jobs most. Median tenure for ages 25 to 34 was 3.0 years in January 2026, up from 2.7 years in January 2024, and for ages 20 to 24 it was 1.5 years.
What this means for employers: if your team is young or in food service, assume a typical employee will stay a couple of years, so onboarding has to be fast and cheap. Employers with longer-tenure workforces can afford deeper training. Either way, measure your own retention by role, since these are national medians.
What new hires say about onboarding
For employee onboarding statistics on sentiment, Gallup is the main source of data on how employees rate onboarding. Its public articles give headline percentages but, in the pages we opened, no sample sizes or field dates, so we label each figure with the page and date shown.
- Gallup's "Why the Onboarding Experience Is Key for Retention" states that only 12 percent of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job onboarding new employees. The page shows no publication date, sample size or field dates.
- Gallup's August 12, 2021 article on onboarding tips words it differently: only 12 percent of US employees say their company does a good job of onboarding. Same number, different wording and a different date, so do not quote the two as one survey.
- That 2021 article also says only 29 percent of new hires feel fully prepared and supported to excel in their role.
- Gallup says 70 percent of employees who had exceptional onboarding experiences say they have "the best possible job," and that they are 2.6 times as likely to be extremely satisfied with their workplace.
- Gallup's employee experience page says only 23 percent of employees strongly agree the onboarding process for their current job was exceptional. It is a different question from the 12 percent figure and shows no date or sample.
- The 2021 article also says new employees take around 12 months to reach peak performance potential.
Gallup's pages do not describe the survey method, so treat these as directional. They are still the most credible public onboarding sentiment numbers we could open, and they point the same way: most employees do not rate their onboarding highly.
What this means for employers: ask your own new hires, at day 30 and day 90, whether they felt prepared. A two-question pulse gives you a number you can trust more than any national one. See our guide to employee onboarding for what to cover.
Onboarding paperwork deadlines
Some onboarding numbers are legal deadlines, not survey results. The I-9 timing rules come from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
- The employee must complete Section 1 no later than their first day of employment, and may complete it any time after accepting the job offer, per the USCIS Section 1 page.
- The employer must complete Section 2 within 3 business days of the date of hire, which USCIS defines as the first day of work for pay. A worker starting on a Monday means Section 2 is due that Thursday.
- If the job lasts less than 3 days, Section 2 is due no later than the first day of work for pay, per the USCIS Section 2 page.
Our I-9 form guide explains the document lists, and the new hire paperwork guide covers the other forms, including the W-4. For a ready-made list, see the free onboarding checklist templates.
What this means for employers: a three-business-day window sounds generous until your busiest week brings eight starts. Put the Section 2 due date on a calendar the day you set the start date, and have the employee finish Section 1 before day one so only your review remains.
Numbers you will see elsewhere that we could not verify
Statistics roundups repeat a handful of onboarding claims. We could not trace these two to an original study, so we do not use them as fact.
- "Turnover can be as much as 50 percent in the first 18 months." Gallup's retention article attributes this to the Society for Human Resource Management, with no study name, date or sample. A SHRM news article we opened attributes a related claim back to a Gallup staff member, so the citation trail is circular. We found no original report.
- "Replacing an employee costs six to nine months of salary." The same Gallup page credits SHRM and links to a news article, not to SHRM data. Treat it as an unsourced estimate; employer replacement costs vary by role.
We also did not use a 2018 SilkRoad vendor survey reported by SHRM, because it is dated and tells you about employer program length rather than outcomes.
About this data
The figures come from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (monthly; the next release is on the BLS schedule), the BLS Employee Tenure release (every two years, based on the January Current Population Survey supplement), USCIS I-9 guidance (updated when rules change) and Gallup's published articles. We review this page when new releases come out. Journalists, students and bloggers are welcome to cite it with a link to this page.
More workforce statistics: Hiring statistics · Employee retention statistics · Employee engagement statistics · Employee turnover statistics.
Sources
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, September 2026, released November 3, 2026. bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm
- BLS, JOLTS Table 2, Hires levels and rates by industry, September 2026. bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t02.htm
- BLS, JOLTS Table 4, Quits levels and rates by industry, September 2026. bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t04.htm
- BLS, Employee Tenure in 2026, released September 24, 2026 (reference period January 2026). bls.gov/news.release/tenure.nr0.htm
- BLS, Employee Tenure Tables 1 and 5. Table 1, Table 5
- USCIS, Completing Section 1, Employee Information and Attestation. uscis.gov
- USCIS, Completing Section 2, Employer Review and Attestation. uscis.gov
- Gallup, "Why the Onboarding Experience Is Key for Retention" (no publication date shown on the page). gallup.com
- Gallup, "8 Practical Tips for Leaders for a Better Onboarding Process," August 12, 2021. gallup.com
- Gallup, "Employee Experience: Strategies for Improvement" (no publication date shown). gallup.com
Frequently asked questions
How many employees leave within their first year?
BLS does not report first-year quits directly. It reports that 20.6 percent of wage and salary workers had 12 months or less of tenure with their current employer in January 2026, down from 22.2 percent in January 2024. That share counts everyone who started a job in the past year, not only people who left.
What percent of employees say their onboarding was good?
Gallup reports that only 12 percent of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job onboarding new employees, and that only 23 percent strongly agree the onboarding for their current job was exceptional. Gallup's pages do not show sample sizes or field dates, so treat both as directional.
How many people does the US hire each month?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' JOLTS release for September 2026, published November 3, 2026, shows 5.4 million hires across total nonfarm employment, a hires rate of 3.4 percent, seasonally adjusted. In the same month, 3.4 million people quit and 1.6 million were laid off or discharged.
When must the I-9 be completed for a new hire?
USCIS says the employee must complete Section 1 no later than their first day of employment, and the employer must complete Section 2 within 3 business days of the date of hire. If the job lasts less than 3 days, Section 2 is due no later than the first day of work for pay.
Is it true that 50 percent of new hires leave within 18 months?
We could not verify it. A Gallup onboarding article attributes the claim to SHRM but gives no study, year or sample, and we found no original SHRM report with that figure. Until someone publishes the source data, treat it as unsupported rather than as a benchmark.
How long does the average US worker stay with an employer?
BLS reports median tenure of 4.1 years for wage and salary workers in January 2026, up from 3.9 years in January 2024. It varies widely: 2.3 years in accommodation and food services, 4.9 years in manufacturing, and 9.9 years for workers 65 and over, according to BLS Employee Tenure tables.