Southeast Stats: What Workplace Data Says, Regionally

Every year, TriNet surveys employers and employees across the country to understand what's actually happening inside businesses. Not what the headlines say, but what the people running teams and working in them are genuinely experiencing. This year, we went deeper. For the first time, the 2025 State of Work report includes regional breakdowns across seven distinct markets in the United States. We're releasing them one at a time, starting here with the Southeast.

The 2025 State of Work: Southeast draws from a survey of 191 employers and employees across Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. It covers six themes: how and where people work, AI adoption, skills development, compensation, engagement, and talent mobility. 

In each area, we compare what employers believe against what employees actually report. What emerges is a picture of a region that's genuinely invested in its workforce, with some meaningful gaps between intention and employee experience that are worth paying attention to.

A few findings stood out. 38.8% of Southeast employees are planning to make a move within the year. Most employers in the region significantly underestimate that number.

When asked why employees leave, better pay and benefits ranked at the top. That gap matters because it's actionable. Employers who close it by giving their teams access to benefits packages that compete with companies far larger than theirs are the ones building workforces that stay.

The data also surfaces a leadership connection gap: 73.8% of Southeast employers believe their employees feel connected to leadership, while only 56% of employees agree. It's not a crisis. But it's the kind of gap that widens quietly before it shows up in turnover.

What makes the Southeast data worth reading carefully is that this region is operating at high engagement levels, and yet mobility is just as high. Employees across Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi are not disengaged. They're not checked out. Many of them are actively looking while still showing up fully at their current company. That combination tells a specific story. The employers keeping their best people aren't winning on culture alone. They're winning on infrastructure: benefits access, HR support, and people practices that make the day-to-day experience of working for a smaller company feel genuinely competitive.

The report isn't a verdict on how Southeast employers are doing. Most of the businesses reflected in this data are doing a lot of things right. What it offers is visibility. A clearer picture of where the gaps are showing up, what employees in this region actually value, and where the opportunity sits for employers who want to stay ahead of it.

TriNet works with businesses across the Southeast to help them close exactly these kinds of gaps, through big company benefits access, HR administration supported by real people, and dedicated expertise that understands what it means to operate in this market.

The 2025 State of Work: Southeast is available now. Download it free and see where the data lands for your region.

This is the first in a series of seven regional reports. Over the coming months, we'll be releasing findings from New York and New Jersey, California, the Greater West, the Mid-Atlantic, the Southern Central region, and the Great Lakes and New England. Each one tells a different story. We'll be publishing a post like this one each time a new report drops.

→  Download the 2025 State of Work: Southeast 

→  Talk to a TriNet HR expert about what the data means for your business