Map Room: Turning Over Tech Workers

Abstract

Across Europe, the days of having a single career at a single company are over. The increased movement of labor from job to job is a major cost for both companies and countries. The price of replacing a single employee in a given country (Cost of Turnover) refl ects the sum of all expenses and opportunity costs to separate and rehire an employee. It can range from 20 percent to an incredible 200 percent of that employee’s annual salary. This map of science and technology workers, a reflection of their tremendous infl uence on economic growth, shows the Cost of Turnover as a percentage of a country’s per capita GDP. A higher percentage refl ects a more signifi cant fi nancial burden on the nation. Because of the way this ratio is expressed, countries with widely disparate economic sizes and growth rates may be comparable. Each country faces its own economic challenges, but a high Relative Cost of Turnover indicates that a nation loses more money to replace science and technology talent, which can make sustaining industry performance diffi cult. What this map and new data also reveal are the countries where turnover is relatively cheap, making these countries ripe for further science and technology ventures.On our map, Europe is divided into four levels, ranging from least expensive to most expensive in terms of Relative Cost of Turnover. The fi ve countries with the lowest cost of turnover of their high-tech workforce as a function of production per capita—Lithuania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Luxembourg—are likely the most opportune for new technology investment. In each such case, workers produce a relatively substantial annual output with a low cost of replacement, should they decide to move on.Compiled by Chason Hecht and Tai TsaoSources: OECD, EurostatDesigned by Meehyun Nam-Thompson