Eagle Hill retention index sinks to lowest reading since 2024

Eagle Hill Consulting’s U.S. Employee Retention Index fell 2.1 points in the third quarter of 2026 to 102.1, its lowest reading since 2024, as workplace culture weakened while views of pay and outside job opportunities barely moved, according to the firm’s Oct. 7 release.

Culture recorded the largest decline among the index’s four components, falling 3.1 points to 100.9 and erasing nearly all its gains over the past year. Compensation sentiment held steady at 104.6 after a sharp decline the previous quarter. Perceptions of external job opportunities edged down 0.3 points, while confidence in employers fell 0.9 points.

The index measures sentiment about staying with an employer over the next six months, rather than actual departures. It draws on monthly Ipsos surveys of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults employed full- or part-time, with at least 1,200 aggregated responses per quarter. The latest collection ran from July through September 2026.

Older workers showed the sharpest deterioration. Baby boomers’ retention index fell 6.3 points to 90.5, and Gen X’s dropped 5.3 points to 93.8. Gen Z moved in the opposite direction, rising one point to 112.8. Millennials’ reading slipped 0.8 points to 106.8. The 22.3-point gap between the youngest and oldest cohorts was the widest recorded, Eagle Hill said.

Workplace culture sentiment fell seven points among Gen X employees and 5.5 points among baby boomers. Gen X’s culture reading was near a three-year low; baby boomers’ views of both culture and organizational confidence were at their lowest levels in two years.

Actual quitting remained steady in the latest federal figures cited in Eagle Hill’s release. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an unchanged August quits rate of 1.9%, with hires little changed at 5.2 million.