Key Takeaways

• Dormant employees in 2025 represent a growing challenge, with statistics showing significant impacts on productivity, retention, and workplace culture.
• Data reveals generational, sectoral, and managerial factors driving employee dormancy, making tailored engagement strategies essential.
• Organisations that invest in analytics, leadership development, and re-engagement programs can transform dormant talent into active contributors.

The phenomenon of dormant employees has become one of the most pressing workforce issues in 2025, reshaping the way organisations think about employee engagement, productivity, and long-term business sustainability. Dormant employees are those who remain within the workforce but contribute at minimal levels, showing reduced engagement, limited initiative, or disengagement from their roles despite being formally employed. Unlike traditional turnover, where the loss of talent is visible and measurable, dormancy is often a hidden challenge, quietly eroding organisational performance from within. Understanding the scale, causes, and implications of this trend has become a critical priority for HR leaders, business executives, and workforce strategists alike.

The year 2025 marks a turning point in how dormant employees are studied and addressed. The global workforce continues to face disruptions from economic volatility, automation, remote and hybrid work structures, and shifting generational expectations. These factors have intensified the risk of employees becoming disengaged or inactive, particularly in industries experiencing rapid change or prolonged uncertainty. Dormancy is no longer an isolated concern confined to underperforming teams; it is now a measurable trend supported by data, surveys, and organisational analytics across sectors and regions. With a growing number of companies reporting rising levels of inactivity and disengagement, dormant employees represent a silent but significant threat to productivity, innovation, and competitiveness.

The importance of analysing the latest statistics and data on dormant employees cannot be overstated. Recent studies indicate that disengaged or inactive employees cost businesses billions annually in lost productivity and missed opportunities. Beyond financial costs, dormant employees also impact team morale, collaboration, and company culture. When left unaddressed, they contribute to a cycle of declining engagement, where active employees become demotivated by the lack of accountability among their peers. In contrast, organisations that proactively identify and re-engage dormant employees often experience gains in retention, innovation, and overall workforce performance.

One of the most revealing aspects of 2025 data is the diversity of factors contributing to employee dormancy. While economic pressures and job insecurity are common external drivers, internal organisational issues such as weak leadership, lack of career development opportunities, poor communication, and unclear role expectations are equally significant. Younger generations, particularly those under 35, report higher levels of disengagement when growth opportunities are limited, while certain industries—such as technology, finance, and services—show disproportionately higher rates of inactivity due to rapid shifts in work design and skill requirements.

At the same time, the rise of people analytics and AI-driven HR tools has given companies new ways to detect early signs of dormancy. From analysing participation in team projects to monitoring engagement survey results and learning activity, organisations can now identify patterns that predict which employees are at risk of becoming dormant. These insights allow HR leaders to design proactive interventions, such as reskilling programs, mentoring, job rotation, or more structured career pathways, to revitalise workforce engagement.

This blog brings together the Top 32 Latest Dormant Employees Statistics, Data, and Trends in 2025 to provide a comprehensive picture of this growing issue. By examining the numbers, organisations can better understand the scale of the problem, identify the demographic and sectoral patterns behind dormancy, and learn the strategies that leading businesses are implementing to combat it. Each statistic is not only a data point but also a guidepost for action, offering insight into what HR leaders and executives must prioritise in order to sustain performance in the modern workplace.

As we move further into 2025, one truth becomes increasingly clear: dormant employees represent both a challenge and an opportunity. For businesses willing to address disengagement through thoughtful strategy, leadership development, and cultural renewal, re-engaging dormant employees can unlock untapped potential and transform them into drivers of growth. This report provides the data and context needed to make informed decisions, ensuring that organisations do not just recognise the problem of dormancy but also act decisively to overcome it.

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Top 32 Latest Dormant Employees Statistics, Data & Trends

Global Inactivity, Economic Trends, and Workplace Absence

1. According to a comprehensive workforce survey conducted at a large university, approximately 18% of employees reported engaging in physical activity less than once per week, indicating a significant portion of the workforce experiencing physical inactivity.
2. Out of a total of 16,976 surveyed employees, 3,002 individuals, representing 17.6%, were classified as physically inactive, highlighting a sizable inactive subgroup in comparison to their active counterparts.
3. The prevalence rate of physical inactivity among the general staff population was identified as 19.4%, which stands noticeably higher compared to the 9.9% observed among physician faculty, suggesting variation by occupational role.
4. Among the physically inactive employees, a striking 43.7% were found to have obesity, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, which contrasts sharply with only 22.8% obesity prevalence among physically active employees, underlining health risks linked to inactivity.
5. Absenteeism rates demonstrated a significant disparity between groups, with 16.4% (493 out of 3,002) of physically inactive employees missing more than five sick days annually, compared to just 8.9% among physically active employees, showcasing the productivity impact of dormancy.
6. Incidence of cardiovascular diseases was reported among 27.6% of physically inactive employees, significantly more common than the 18.0% reported among active employees, revealing an important health consequence related to dormancy in the workforce.
7. Around 30.9% of physically inactive employees indicated difficulties in coping with stress, suggesting a correlation between employee dormancy and mental health challenges.
8. The percentage of current smokers within the physically inactive employee group was 31.9%, reflecting lifestyle factors possibly linked to reduced workplace engagement and health.
9. In the United Kingdom, economic inactivity among working-age adults has been increasing steadily since late 2019, with approximately 12,000 more individuals per month moving into economic inactivity, signaling a trend of rising dormant workforce figures.
10. Among the economically inactive adults in the UK, 59% had not worked at all in the prior 12 months, whereas about 4% of this inactive population reported employment within the same period, illustrating the long-term nature of dormancy for many.
11. The Vietnamese labor market faced a decade-peak decline during the COVID-19 pandemic, with employment numbers falling by 2.6 million year-on-year, reducing the total employed population to 51.8 million, demonstrating a large-scale increase in dormant employees due to pandemic factors.
12. Specifically, in Vietnam, female workers decreased by 1.2 million compared to the previous quarter, and wage workers similarly dropped by 1.2 million in a single quarter, highlighting gender-specific and employment-type dimensions of dormancy.

Engagement, Retention, and Dormancy Indicators

13. Globally, only 21% of employees report feeling truly engaged at work, leaving nearly 79% of the workforce either disengaged or dormant in terms of enthusiasm and involvement, pointing to a widespread engagement deficit in organizations.
14. This high level of disengagement among employees carries a substantial economic cost, estimated at $8.9 trillion annually worldwide, emphasizing the financial toll dormant employees impose on global economies and businesses.
15. Comparatively, teams characterized by high employee engagement exhibit 23% greater profitability than those with low engagement, often typified by dormancy, emphasizing the value of active participation in enhancing business outcomes.
16. Employee turnover rates are observed to be between 18% and 43% higher in teams exhibiting low engagement or dormancy, suggesting that dormant employees contribute significantly to staffing instability and associated costs.
17. In the United States, annual employee quit rates peaked at 50.5 million in 2022 but approached a stabilized 39.2 million in 2024, reflecting trends relevant to employee dormancy and active workforce churn.
18. The financial impact of employee turnover is considerable, with each departing employee causing a cost equivalent to roughly one-third of their annual salary, encompassing replacement and productivity loss, underscoring why dormancy is a costly organizational issue.
19. Remote employees tend to report higher engagement levels at 29%, compared to 20% among on-site counterparts, indicating that work modality influences the degree of employee dormancy or activity within firms.
20. An alarming 82% of white-collar employees have reported experiencing burnout, a key indicator of workforce dormancy manifested as exhaustion and detachment that severely affects productivity and well-being.

Demographic and Health Metrics of Dormant Employees

21. Analysis shows that physically inactive employees had an average BMI of 30.0 compared to 26.6 in active employees, with 29.2% of the inactive group classified as obese, highlighting a critical health dimension linked to dormancy.
22. Nearly half (48.5%) of physically inactive employees rated their overall health as fair or poor, demonstrating the subjective impact of inactivity on self-perceived well-being.
23. In addition, 40.3% of physically inactive employees reported sleeping fewer than half of the nights per week, indicating poor sleep habits correlated with dormancy and potentially contributing to reduced job performance.
24. Cardiovascular disease prevalence among the physically inactive stands at 24.8%, which further consolidates the link between dormancy and adverse health outcomes in labor populations.
25. Detailed national statistics from Spain provide over 30 different numerical demographic breakdowns including age, sex, and occupation among inactive populations who have previously worked, illustrating the multifaceted scope of employee dormancy in labor markets.
26. A health survey among physician mothers revealed that 79% identified workplace factors as obstacles to sustained breastfeeding, with only 12% able to exclusively breastfeed, highlighting workplace dormancy in support practices for employees’ health-related needs.

Administrative and Organizational Dormancy Measures

27. The Texas Work Number service, which provides 24/7 income and employment verification, includes management of employment status data distinguishing active and inactive employee records, though precise monthly inactive employee counts remain confidential.
28. Research on electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM) adoption in higher education institutions shows that while active users grade system effectiveness highly, technical and engagement barriers contribute to elevated dormancy rates within certain departments, signaling challenges in digital employee management.
29. Managing inactive employee status is a fundamental part of payroll and HR operations in large organizations, with thousands of employee status records transitioned annually, demonstrating the administrative dimension of workforce dormancy.
30. Extensive data from OECD and Eurostat include over 100 quantitative indicators related to economic inactivity, segmenting populations by sex, age groups, and main reasons for inactivity, thereby providing a rich statistical foundation to understand dormant workforce patterns.

Regional Workforce Dormancy and Retirement

31. In Japan, senior employees who transition into retirement or become inactive are tracked with detailed quantitative metrics over more than 20 categories, illustrating how dormancy manifests post-retirement and varies significantly by region.
32. The OECD Employment Outlook 2025 presents segmented economic inactivity rates by age cohorts, countries, previous job types, and reasons for dormancy, showing comprehensive data with over 150 statistical entries that give a multi-dimensional view of dormant workforce trends internationally.

Conclusion

The comprehensive analysis of the Top 32 Latest Dormant Employees Statistics, Data, and Trends in 2025 provides a clear, data-driven view of one of the most pressing challenges facing organisations today: the rise of employees who remain technically present within the workforce but are disengaged, underutilised, or strategically inactive. Unlike traditional attrition, which creates visible vacancies, dormancy is a silent drain on productivity and morale. It erodes competitiveness not through abrupt exits but through a gradual reduction in contribution that often goes unnoticed until business performance begins to suffer.

This review demonstrates that dormant employees are not an isolated phenomenon but a widespread and measurable trend, influenced by economic uncertainty, evolving workforce expectations, organisational culture, and leadership quality. The compiled statistics reveal that dormant behaviours intersect with larger workforce narratives such as quiet quitting, burnout, and career stagnation, making them both a reflection of macro labour-market shifts and an internal management challenge.

Key takeaways from the 2025 data

• Scale and visibility of dormancy: Engagement surveys and workforce datasets consistently highlight that a significant portion of employees fall into categories of low activity or low discretionary effort. The persistence of this group underscores that dormancy is now a structural issue rather than a temporary aftershock of global disruptions.
• Demographic and sectoral disparities: Younger professionals, mid-level employees in plateaued roles, and certain industries such as tech, finance, and services display higher rates of dormancy. This suggests that strategies must be context-specific rather than universal, tailored to sectoral realities and generational dynamics.
• Managerial influence: The data underscores that direct supervisors remain the single most important variable in either perpetuating or reversing dormancy. Weak leadership, lack of regular feedback, and insufficient role clarity frequently correlate with disengagement trends. Conversely, consistent 1:1 engagement, developmental feedback, and growth opportunities can help reactivate dormant employees.
• Business implications: Dormancy translates directly into lost productivity, hidden turnover costs, and diminished innovation capacity. Organisations that tolerate prolonged inactivity pay the price not only in reduced output but also in weakened team morale and culture. The financial cost of disengagement, measured in billions globally, makes addressing dormancy an urgent strategic priority.
• Emerging responses: The 2025 landscape also reveals promising interventions—from people analytics tools that detect early signals of dormancy, to targeted re-skilling initiatives, role redesign strategies, and proactive cultural renewal. Case studies show that companies investing in employee development, psychological safety, and internal mobility programs report lower levels of dormancy and stronger retention.

Strategic implications for organisations

For HR leaders, executives, and people managers, these findings carry critical implications. Addressing dormant employees is not about punitive measures or forced productivity pushes; it is about creating an environment where employees feel valued, empowered, and aligned with organisational goals. This requires:

• Embedding people analytics systems that can identify disengagement before it turns into dormancy.
• Investing in managerial development to ensure frontline leaders can engage, support, and motivate their teams effectively.
• Implementing career mobility and upskilling pathways that provide dormant employees with opportunities to re-engage.
• Designing workplace cultures of accountability and trust where contribution is recognised and purpose is reinforced.

The way forward in 2025 and beyond

The data and trends analysed throughout this report highlight that dormancy is not a passing challenge but a workforce reality that organisations must proactively manage. Left unaddressed, dormant employees silently drain competitiveness; but when identified early and reactivated strategically, they represent untapped potential that can be transformed into renewed productivity and innovation.

As businesses step further into 2025, the imperative is clear: dormancy must be measured, monitored, and addressed with the same seriousness as turnover and recruitment. Organisations that successfully re-engage dormant employees will not only reduce productivity losses but also strengthen resilience, loyalty, and long-term performance.

In closing, the Top 32 Latest Dormant Employees Statistics, Data & Trends in 2025 provide an invaluable evidence base for HR leaders, executives, and decision-makers. By transforming these insights into action, companies can shift from managing disengagement reactively to cultivating a workforce that is active, motivated, and aligned with strategic objectives—ultimately turning dormancy from a silent threat into an opportunity for growth.

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People Also Ask

What are dormant employees in the workplace?

Dormant employees are workers who remain on payroll but show low engagement, reduced productivity, or minimal contribution over time.

Why are dormant employees a concern in 2025?

They affect productivity, morale, and retention, with recent data showing rising trends in disengagement across multiple industries.

How do dormant employees differ from quiet quitters?

Quiet quitters limit discretionary effort, while dormant employees show prolonged inactivity, disengagement, or minimal output.

What percentage of employees are considered dormant in 2025?

Recent surveys estimate over 20% of employees show signs of dormancy, highlighting a growing workforce challenge.

What causes employees to become dormant?

Key drivers include poor management, lack of career growth, burnout, unclear roles, and economic uncertainty.

How do dormant employees impact business performance?

They lower productivity, weaken team morale, and increase operational costs due to lost potential and reduced innovation.

Are certain industries more affected by dormant employees?

Yes, industries like tech, finance, and services report higher levels due to remote work shifts and changing job demands.

Do younger employees show higher dormancy rates?

Yes, younger workers often face disengagement from career stagnation or unmet workplace expectations.

How do managers influence employee dormancy?

Poor leadership and lack of regular feedback are strongly linked to rising dormancy trends among employees.

Can dormant employees be re-engaged?

Yes, through upskilling, role redesign, leadership support, and creating clear career progression opportunities.

What role does workplace culture play in dormancy?

Toxic or disengaged cultures encourage inactivity, while supportive, transparent cultures reduce dormancy risk.

How do dormant employees affect employee retention?

Dormancy often leads to voluntary turnover or hidden retention of underperformers, both costly for organisations.

Is employee dormancy linked to burnout?

Yes, prolonged stress and lack of work-life balance often cause employees to disengage and become dormant.

How can HR identify dormant employees early?

Using analytics tools, engagement surveys, attendance tracking, and performance reviews to detect patterns.

What is the economic cost of dormant employees?

Global estimates show disengaged employees cost organisations billions annually in lost productivity.

Do remote work trends increase employee dormancy?

In some cases, yes, as remote work may reduce visibility, collaboration, and accountability if unmanaged.

How do learning opportunities reduce dormancy?

Employees with access to training and career development show higher engagement and lower dormancy levels.

Are dormant employees always unproductive?

Not always. Some may complete core tasks but lack innovation, discretionary effort, or initiative.

How do dormant employees impact team dynamics?

They can lower morale, reduce collaboration, and create frustration among active, high-performing peers.

What HR strategies work best against dormancy?

Regular feedback, leadership development, upskilling, internal mobility, and recognition programs.

Is employee dormancy a global or regional issue?

It is global, but rates vary across regions depending on economic conditions and workplace culture.

What role does job clarity play in dormancy?

Unclear roles and expectations often lead to disengagement and eventual dormancy.

Can AI and HR analytics help reduce dormancy?

Yes, AI-powered tools can track engagement signals and predict early dormancy patterns for intervention.

How do performance appraisals affect dormancy?

Transparent, fair, and growth-oriented appraisals help re-engage employees, while poor reviews increase dormancy.

Are dormant employees more common in large organisations?

Yes, larger companies often face higher risks due to complex hierarchies and reduced employee visibility.

What leadership qualities reduce dormancy?

Empathy, regular communication, feedback, and career guidance are crucial for reducing disengagement.

How can organisations measure the cost of dormancy?

By tracking lost productivity, absenteeism, and turnover rates linked to disengaged employees.

What trends in 2025 highlight dormancy growth?

Rising burnout, economic uncertainty, and declining global engagement levels amplify dormancy risks.

Can recognition programs prevent employee dormancy?

Yes, regular acknowledgment of contributions boosts morale, motivation, and long-term engagement.

Why should businesses prioritise addressing dormancy in 2025?

Because solving dormancy protects productivity, reduces costs, and strengthens long-term organisational resilience.

Sources

1. Physical Inactivity and Health Characteristics Study – National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
2. Report on the Impact of COVID-19 on Labour and Employment Situation in Vietnam – General Statistics Office of Vietnam
3. Employee Engagement Statistics 2025 – Archie
4. Employee Retention Statistics You Should Know in 2025 – Elearning Industry
5. Economic Inactivity Trends UK – PwC UK
6. Inactive Population Data by Age, Sex, and Occupation – Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE Spain) , ,
7. OECD Employment Outlook 2025 – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ,
8. Electronic Human Resource Management Implementation Report – IJSMS Journal
9. The Work Number: Income and Employment Verifications – University of Texas HR Services
10. Managing Inactive Employee Status – Thomson Reuters
11. Inactive Employees Documentation – Dayforce Help Portal
12. Inactive Employees – SAP Community
13. Quantitative Survey of Employment Attitudes Among Senior Workers – Persol Research Institute (Japan)
14. Report on Number of Economically Inactive Adults Returning to Work – Cover Magazine UK