What is the average turnover rate for licensed nurses?

The national average turnover rate for registered nurses was approximately 18.4% in 2025, according to NSI Nursing Solutions' National Health Care Retention Report. This varies significantly by specialty—ICU and ER nurses turn over at higher rates (20-25%), while outpatient and administrative nursing roles tend to be lower (12-15%). Travel nursing complicates the picture further, as facilities relying heavily on travelers effectively have built-in turnover.

Does license portability affect turnover?

Yes. Professions with easier cross-state mobility—like nursing in compact states—tend to see higher geographic turnover because the barrier to relocation is lower. A nurse with a multistate license can move to a new state and start working immediately. This is generally positive for the profession but creates retention challenges for employers in states that lose workers to higher-paying markets.

What's the cost of replacing a licensed professional?

Replacement costs vary dramatically by role. For an RN, estimates range from $28,000 to $51,000 per turnover event when factoring in recruitment, onboarding, training, and lost productivity. For specialized roles like CRNAs or nurse practitioners, costs can exceed $100,000. Real estate brokerages face different economics—agent turnover costs are primarily in lost relationships and pipeline disruption rather than recruitment fees.

Licensed Workforce Turnover Trends | License Guide Network

Turnover among licensed professionals costs U.S. employers billions annually, and the numbers have shifted meaningfully since the post-pandemic staffing crisis. Some professions are stabilizing. Others are still hemorrhaging talent. Here’s what the data shows heading into the second half of 2026.

What do current turnover rates look like?

The picture varies dramatically by profession. Healthcare continues to lead in both absolute turnover numbers and attention, but real estate and financial services have their own retention challenges that get less coverage.

Turnover by profession (2025-2026 data)

Profession	Annual Turnover Rate	Trend (YoY)	Primary Driver
Registered Nurses	18.4%	Down from 22.5% (2023)	Burnout, pay compression
Licensed Practical Nurses	24.1%	Flat	Career advancement to RN
Nurse Practitioners	11.2%	Slight increase	Market competition
Real Estate Agents	30-40%	Stable	Commission volatility
MLOs (Mortgage Loan Originators)	20-25%	Up from 15% (2021)	Rate environment, volume decline
Electricians (Licensed)	8-12%	Stable	Strong demand, apprenticeship investment

A few things stand out. Nursing turnover is actually improving—down roughly 4 percentage points from the 2023 peak. The crisis narrative hasn’t caught up with the data. Real estate agent turnover has always been high because the barrier to entry is low and income is variable, so many agents leave within their first two years. MLO turnover spiked as mortgage volume declined with higher interest rates, pushing originators out of the industry or into other financial services roles.

What’s driving attrition in licensed professions?

The drivers aren’t the same across industries, and lumping them together leads to bad retention strategies.

Healthcare: It’s not just burnout anymore

The conversation about healthcare turnover has been dominated by burnout narratives since 2020, and burnout is real. But the data suggests compensation and career mobility are now bigger factors than pure burnout for most nurses considering a job change.

Pay compression is the quiet killer. A nurse with 15 years of experience earning $38/hour watches new graduates get hired at $34/hour. The experienced nurse’s value isn’t reflected in the pay gap. Organizations that haven’t adjusted their pay scales since before the pandemic are losing their most experienced staff to competitors who have.

Geographic mobility through the Nurse Licensure Compact makes it easier than ever for nurses to relocate to higher-paying states. A compact license removes the 6-14 week wait for endorsement, turning what used to be a friction point into a non-issue.

Travel nursing has normalized the idea of short-term assignments. Even as travel rates have come down from their 2022 peaks, the mental model of “I can work somewhere else easily” persists.

Real estate and MLO: Market-driven cycles

Real estate agent turnover follows market cycles more than anything else. In hot markets, marginal agents survive on easy transactions. When the market tightens, they exit.

MLO turnover is directly correlated with mortgage volume. When rates rose and refinance volume collapsed, many originators couldn’t sustain their income. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows about 12% fewer active MLO licenses in early 2026 compared to the 2021 peak. Those weren’t all layoffs—many voluntarily surrendered their licenses when the economics no longer worked.

How does license portability affect retention?

This is the variable most employers underestimate. The easier it is for a licensed professional to practice in another state, the more competitive the labor market becomes.

The compact effect on nursing

States participating in the Nurse Licensure Compact effectively compete with every other compact state for nursing talent. A hospital in a lower-paying compact state loses the geographic friction that previously kept nurses from relocating.

Data from NCSBN suggests compact states see slightly higher interstate mobility among nurses—roughly 8-10% of compact license holders practice across state lines in a given year, compared to 3-4% for nurses in non-compact states.

This isn’t necessarily bad. It increases the available talent pool. But employers in lower-cost-of-living states need to benchmark compensation not just against local competitors but against the national market.

Real estate: Fragmented but shifting

Real estate has no equivalent national compact. Each state license is independent, and reciprocity agreements vary. This geographic friction actually helps with retention—an agent invested in a local market with local relationships has meaningful switching costs.

The exception is the five full-reciprocity states (Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Maine, Delaware), where agents can more easily move their practice across state lines.

What retention strategies actually work?

Generic retention advice—“improve culture” and “offer competitive pay”—isn’t particularly useful. Here’s what the data shows matters for licensed professionals specifically.

For healthcare employers

Fix pay compression first. The single highest-impact retention lever is ensuring experienced staff are paid meaningfully more than new hires. A 2025 MGMA analysis found that organizations that addressed pay compression saw 15-20% improvement in retention among staff with 5+ years of tenure.

Invest in specialization pathways. Nurses who see a career path within your organization are less likely to leave. Certification support, tuition reimbursement for advanced degrees, and clinical ladder programs all reduce turnover among mid-career nurses.

Streamline credential management. This sounds mundane, but clunky onboarding and credentialing processes frustrate new hires. When it takes 8 weeks to get a nurse fully credentialed and scheduled, you’ve already lost some of them.

For real estate and MLO employers

Provide production support during downturns. The agents and originators who leave during slow markets are often salvageable if brokerages provide leads, marketing support, or draw programs to bridge low-volume periods.

Reduce administrative friction. Licensed professionals want to spend time on revenue-generating activities, not paperwork. Brokerages that handle compliance, license renewals, and CE tracking on behalf of their agents see better retention.

Key takeaways

Healthcare turnover is improving but remains elevated; pay compression and mobility are now bigger drivers than burnout
Real estate and MLO turnover follows market cycles—expect stabilization as the housing market normalizes
License portability (especially through compacts) increases interstate competition for talent
The most effective retention strategies address profession-specific pain points, not generic culture initiatives

For a deeper look at how licensing data powers these workforce insights, see our workforce analytics guide. Employers building or refining their compliance programs should also check our compliance program framework.