Bar staff turnover is best understood through several related measures: total separations, voluntary quits, layoffs and discharges, hiring, open positions, and tenure. The latest available U.S. benchmark shows a 5.5% annual average total separations rate and a 4.2% quits rate in accommodation and food services during 2025. These figures describe the broader sector rather than bars alone, so they are useful management benchmarks—not a standalone national bartender turnover rate.
Table of contents
- Latest sector benchmark
- Voluntary quits over time
- Total separations and involuntary exits
- Hiring and replacement volume
- Openings and recruitment pressure
- What tenure shows about retention
Latest sector benchmark
The most current annual JOLTS benchmark in the supplied Bureau of Labor Statistics tables covers 2025. In accommodation and food services, the annual average total separations rate was 5.5%, while the annual average quits rate was 4.2%. The annual average layoffs-and-discharges rate was 1.1%. These are rates for the full U.S. accommodation-and-food-services industry and are not limited to bartenders, servers, or bar employees.
The same 2025 tables report 9.304 million total separations and 7.243 million quits. They also report 9.412 million hires. An annual average of 850,000 job openings and a 5.6% annual average job-openings rate indicate that employers continued to maintain substantial recruiting demand during the year.
| 2025 U.S. accommodation and food services measure | Annual benchmark |
|---|---|
| Total separations rate | 5.5% |
| Quits rate | 4.2% |
| Layoffs and discharges rate | 1.1% |
| Total separations | 9.304 million |
| Quits | 7.243 million |
| Hires | 9.412 million |
| Average job openings | 850,000 |
| Job-openings rate | 5.6% |
Sources: BLS Table 20, BLS Table 22, BLS Table 24, BLS Table 19, BLS Table 21, BLS Table 17, BLS Table 15, and BLS Table 16.
For a bar manager, the practical distinction is important. Total separations capture all departures, while quits capture employee-initiated exits. Layoffs and discharges are a separate involuntary-exit measure. The three rates should not be treated as interchangeable, and the broader industry coverage means none should be presented as the exact turnover rate for one bar’s staff.
Voluntary quits over time
The annual average quits rate in accommodation and food services was 5.8% in both 2021 and 2022. It then measured 5.0% in 2023, 4.1% in 2024, and 4.2% in 2025. The latest rate therefore sits below the 2021 and 2022 levels, while remaining close to the 2024 benchmark.
The corresponding annual quit levels were 8.475 million in 2021, 9.442 million in 2022, 8.462 million in 2023, 7.023 million in 2024, and 7.243 million in 2025. These levels are annual totals for the broader U.S. sector, not counts of bar staff. They show the volume of voluntary exits recorded across accommodation and food services in each calendar year.
| Year | Annual average quits rate | Annual quits level |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5.8% | 8.475 million |
| 2022 | 5.8% | 9.442 million |
| 2023 | 5.0% | 8.462 million |
| 2024 | 4.1% | 7.023 million |
| 2025 | 4.2% | 7.243 million |
Source: BLS Table 22 for rates and BLS Table 21 for levels. The rate and level answer different questions: the rate describes quits relative to employment measurement, while the level describes the number of quits accumulated across the year.
For internal reporting, a bar can use this distinction to separate frequency from scale. A small operation may experience several departures without resembling the national level, while a large hospitality group may care about both its quit rate and its total replacement workload. The national figures provide context, not a staffing target.
Total separations and involuntary exits
Annual average total separations rates were 7.1% in 2021, 7.0% in 2022, 6.3% in 2023, 5.4% in 2024, and 5.5% in 2025 for accommodation and food services. The associated annual total separation levels were 10.365 million, 11.313 million, 10.638 million, 9.198 million, and 9.304 million, respectively.
This pattern places the 2025 benchmark above 2024 on both the rate and level measures, while remaining below the 2021–2023 levels in the supplied series. It is a sector-wide pattern; it does not establish why an individual bartender, barback, server, or manager left a particular workplace.
The layoffs-and-discharges rate was 1.1% in 2021 and 1.0% in 2022. The 2025 benchmark was also 1.1%. The supplied figures do not provide later annual values for this measure in the outline, so the available comparison should remain limited to those reported years. Layoffs and discharges should be kept separate from voluntary quits when evaluating retention work, scheduling disruption, or manager-controlled exits.
Source: BLS Table 20 for total-separation rates, BLS Table 19 for total-separation levels, and BLS Table 24 for layoffs and discharges.
Hiring and replacement volume
Accommodation and food services recorded 12.370 million hires in 2021, 12.107 million in 2022, 10.951 million in 2023, 9.266 million in 2024, and 9.412 million in 2025. The annual average hires rate was 8.5% in 2021, 7.5% in 2022, 6.5% in 2023, and 5.5% in 2024. The supplied benchmark reports the 2025 hiring level, while the latest outline does not provide a 2025 hires rate.
| Year | Hires level | Annual average hires rate when supplied |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 12.370 million | 8.5% |
| 2022 | 12.107 million | 7.5% |
| 2023 | 10.951 million | 6.5% |
| 2024 | 9.266 million | 5.5% |
| 2025 | 9.412 million | Not supplied |
Sources: BLS Table 17 for hiring levels and BLS Table 18 for the supplied hiring rates.
Hiring volume matters because turnover creates work beyond the departure itself. A bar may need to advertise, screen, schedule interviews, train a replacement, and maintain service coverage while a new employee learns the operation. The national annual counts cannot price that workload or identify the cause of a local vacancy, but they establish that replacement activity is a major feature of the wider industry.
The 2025 hiring level of 9.412 million is paired with 9.304 million total separations in the same broad sector. Those are separately reported annual levels. They should be read as two measures of labor-market flows, not as a staffing balance for an individual business or as proof that every separation was replaced by the same employer.
Openings and recruitment pressure
The annual average job-openings level in accommodation and food services was 1.252 million in 2021, 1.410 million in 2022, 1.094 million in 2023, 875,000 in 2024, and 850,000 in 2025. The annual average job-openings rate was 9.3% in 2021, 9.5% in 2022, 7.2% in 2023, 5.8% in 2024, and 5.6% in 2025.
| Year | Average job openings | Job-openings rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1.252 million | 9.3% |
| 2022 | 1.410 million | 9.5% |
| 2023 | 1.094 million | 7.2% |
| 2024 | 875,000 | 5.8% |
| 2025 | 850,000 | 5.6% |
Source: BLS Table 15 for levels and BLS Table 16 for rates.
Openings are not the same as hires, and an opening does not identify how long a position remains unfilled. Still, the series gives bar-management readers a way to describe recruiting conditions with more precision than saying that hiring is “hard.” The supplied annual benchmarks show a higher openings level and rate in 2022 than in 2025, with lower reported values in 2024 and 2025.
Because these measurements cover accommodation and food services, they may include hotels, restaurants, and other food-service workplaces alongside drinking places. A local bar should compare its own open positions with its own staffing plan rather than applying the national openings rate directly to its headcount.
What tenure shows about retention
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports median tenure with the current employer for food services and drinking places at 1.8 years in January 2016, 2.0 years in January 2018, 2.0 years in January 2020, 1.7 years in January 2022, 2.0 years in January 2024, and 2.2 years in January 2026. This industry grouping is closer to bar work than the broader accommodation-and-food-services JOLTS category, but it still is not a bar-only series.
For food-preparation-and-serving-related occupations, median tenure was 1.9 years in January 2016, 1.9 years in January 2018, 1.9 years in January 2020, 1.6 years in January 2022, 2.0 years in January 2024, and 2.2 years in January 2026. This occupational grouping includes more than bar staff, so it should be treated as a broader workforce reference.
| Measurement group | Jan. 2016 | Jan. 2020 | Jan. 2022 | Jan. 2024 | Jan. 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food services and drinking places | 1.8 years | 2.0 years | 1.7 years | 2.0 years | 2.2 years |
| Food-preparation and serving-related occupations | 1.9 years | 1.9 years | 1.6 years | 2.0 years | 2.2 years |
Source: BLS Table 5 for the industry grouping and BLS Table 6 for the occupation grouping.
Tenure is a retention measure, not a turnover rate. A median of 2.2 years means the midpoint of the reported tenure distribution was 2.2 years at the January 2026 measurement date; it does not mean every employee stayed for that length of time, nor does it predict an individual worker’s departure. The January 2026 tenure figures are the latest measurements in the cited tables, while the JOLTS annual benchmarks above refer to 2025.
Together, the measures give managers a more disciplined vocabulary. Use quits to discuss voluntary exits, total separations for all reported departures, layoffs and discharges for the supplied involuntary category, hires and openings for recruiting activity, and tenure for the length of current-employer attachment. Keep the geography, industry or occupation grouping, and measurement period alongside every comparison.