Ranked: U.S. Industries With the Most CEO Turnover

Ranked: U.S. Industries With the Most CEO Turnover

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This graphic visualizes the number of CEO departures in each U.S. industry, from January to November 2024. Data comes from the monthly CEO Turnover Report from Challenger, Gray, & Christmas, Inc.

Based on these numbers, industries that saw the most CEO turnover in 2024 were Government and Non-Profits, Health Care, and Tech.

Data and Key Takeaways

The data we used to create this graphic is listed in the table below.

Please note that this data does not reflect the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was killed on Dec. 4, 2024.

Why Do Some Industries Have More Turnover?

As mentioned above, Government and Non-Profits, Health Care, and Tech had the highest amounts of CEO turnover.

Here are some possible reasons for why the Government and Non-Profit sector leads this ranking:

• Upward mobility: Jobs in these sectors typically have less opportunity for advancement
• Lower compensation: Non-profits may pay less than their counterparts in the for-profit sector
• Fundraising pressure: Uncertainty of funding can result in job insecurity

Health Care CEOs may also be feeling the pressure. According to Michael Kelly Associates, the average tenure of hospital CEOs in America is just five years.

Top Reasons for CEOs Leaving

Challenger, Gray, & Christmas also tracks the top reasons for CEO turnover.

Between January to November 2024, the top reason was “stepped down”, which was cited 551 times. While this term is quite ambiguous, it’s important to note that “stepped down” is different from retirement, which accounted for 445 departures.

CEOs often step down for personal reasons, succession planning (making way for the next generation of leaders), or board member pressure.

Less frequent reasons for leaving included allegations of professional misconduct (7), termination (5), and allegations of sexual misconduct (3).

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed this post, check out Ranked: The Highest Paid CEOs in the S&P 500 on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.