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An Annual Report on Classified Employee Turnover for Fiscal Year 2015

December 2015

Report Number 16-702

Overall Conclusion

The fiscal year 2015 statewide turnover rate was 18.0 percent for classified, regular, full- and part-time employees based on 27,124 separations. Those separations included both voluntary and involuntary separations. That was a slight increase from the fiscal year 2014 statewide turnover rate of 17.5 percent. During the past five fiscal years, the statewide turnover rate has ranged from 16.8 percent in fiscal year 2011 to a high of 18.0 percent in fiscal year 2015.

Excluding involuntary separations and retirements, the fiscal year 2015 statewide turnover rate was 10.5 percent. That rate, which is often considered more of a true turnover rate because it reflects preventable turnover, increased since fiscal years 2012, 2013, and 2014, when it remained flat at 10.0 percent.

The 83rd Legislature directed the State Auditor’s Office to identify each state agency that experienced an employee turnover rate that exceeded 17.0 percent during the preceding biennium. Twenty-two agencies with 50 or more employees had turnover rates that exceeded 17.0 percent in fiscal year 2015. Fifteen of those agencies also had turnover rates that exceeded 17.0 percent in fiscal year 2014.

Voluntary separations, including retirements, accounted for the majority (75.5 percent) of the State's total separations in fiscal year 2015. That was a 3.4 percent increase in the number of voluntary separations since fiscal year 2014. Several factors may have contributed to the increase in the number of voluntary separations. Specifically:

- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, as of August 2015, Texas had the third largest increase in jobs in the nation.

- Texas's unemployment rate decreased. The statewide unemployment rate decreased from 5.4 percent in fiscal year 2014 to 4.4 percent in fiscal year 2015.

Involuntary separations accounted for 24.5 percent of the State's total separations in fiscal year 2015.

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