40% of nurses eye exit by 2029: 5 findings from NCSBN’s new workforce report

40% of nurses eye exit by 2029: 5 findings from NCSBN’s new workforce report 
Becker's Hospital Review; by Erica Carbajal; 4/27/25
While the post-pandemic nursing workforce is showing signs of stabilizing, high levels of burnout, stress and dissatisfaction continue to threaten long-term workforce stability, according to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing’s biennial 2024 National Workforce Study. The report surveyed more than 800,000 nurses in the U.S. and is considered the largest, most comprehensive report on the state of the nursing workforce. ...

• More than 138,000 nurses have left the workforce since 2022. Apart from retirement, nurses pointed to stress, burnout, workload, understaffing, inadequate pay and workplace violence as the top reasons for exiting the field. ...
• Nearly 40% of RNs said they intend to exit the field within the next five years. Of this group, about 22% planned to retire and 18% said they plan to leave for other reasons, namely stress and burnout. This equates to about 1.6 million nurses who could potentially leave the workforce, according to the council’s estimates. ...
• “While we have seen some improvements, staffing challenges, stress and burnout, and workforce safety are issues that have permeated the nursing industry before, during and after the pandemic and are still challenges,” Phil Dickison, CEO of NCSBN, said in a news release on the findings.