Low employee satisfaction, poor relationships between workers and managers, and high employee turnover mark the twenty-first century labor market. 

Below are eight statistics about blue-collar retention.

A tight labor market

1) Only 23% of businesses are not having trouble with hiring. According to the National Association for Business Economics, this figure was 42% one year ago, showing that the labor market is tighter than ever before. High employee turnover is ubiquitous, especially in blue-collar fields.

2) Employee turnover costs between 16% and 213% of the worker’s salary. Due to the tangible costs of recruiting and the intangible damage exacted upon organizational culture, churn is highly expensive. Read more about the costs of employee turnover here.

3) To worsen the problem, blue-collar hiring is extremely competitive. Last year, frontline industries such as manufacturing, retail, and construction added hundreds of thousands of new jobs. As a result, demand for workers has increased and hourly wages are rising. Read more about blue-collar hiring trends here.

Rampant disengagement

4) Burnout—a major contributor to turnover—affects 61% of employees. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and other key public health agencies are recognizing burnout as an international phenomenon. Burnout leads to poor mental and physical health.

5) Disengagement—another critical cause of churn—costs businesses up to $550 billion per year. The Harvard Business Review also notes that companies spend $100 billion to cut disengagement and its consequences.

6) Yet, only 25% of businesses have an employee engagement strategy. A company’s expressed organizational culture and actualized organizational culture are often very distinct. Likewise, a business may profess to support employee engagement while failing to truly uphold it. Read more about organizational culture and rewards-based incentives here.

The solution

7) Employees who feel that their voice is heard are nearly five times as likely to feel empowered. In accordance with centuries of organizational psychology research, Salesforce noticed a link between listening to employees and increasing output. Read about the Hawthorne Effect and other cornerstone human resources findings here.

8) Roughly 70% of employees are not encouraged to grow. Even though efforts to listen to employees can signal that they are valuable, Gallup found that the majority of workers believe that their employers are not invested in their growth.

Learn how Qlicket can help you listen to employees through an interactive kiosk system. By boosting blue-collar retention, companies enjoy far more stability and far higher profits.

Statistics assembled from Kristina Martic, USA Today, Forbes, and Cleverism.