Turnover has stopped being a staffing headache and started being a growth constraint. Gallagher’s 2026 US Workforce Trends Report, drawn from 3,717 US employers surveyed between January and March, found that 63 percent reported annual turnover of 10 percent or higher in 2025, and that retention now ranks as a top HR priority for 57 percent of employers and a top operational priority for 39 percent, putting it inside the same planning conversation as revenue and sales growth.
The report’s sharper finding is the mismatch behind those numbers: 61 percent of employers expect revenue growth by 2027, but only half expect headcount to grow with it. “Business leaders are pursuing growth while managing cost pressures, workforce capacity constraints and retention challenges,” said John Tournet, US CEO of Gallagher’s Benefits and HR Consulting division. Employers are also leaning on AI to close the gap, with 73 percent likely to expand AI adoption by 2028, yet Gallagher’s own data shows the trust work has not kept pace: 72 percent cite data privacy and security as a top AI concern, and only 45 percent have run an ethical impact assessment. “Technology alone isn’t enough,” Tournet said. “Focus is shifting to helping employees use AI with confidence.”
That gap is the story for HR leaders here. A workforce asked to do more with flat headcount, using tools the company has not finished vetting, is a workforce that is telling Gallagher’s surveyors it plans to leave. The erosion of manager judgment under AI-driven efficiency pressure and the pattern in rising job cuts alongside rising hiring plans both point the same direction: retention strategy in 2026 is inseparable from how carefully, not how fast, a company rolls out AI.
Source: Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
