A report from University of California, Berkeley Labor Center noted that the annual turnover in the security industry reached 89 percent in 2024—far above the 66 percent private-sector average—and has exceeded it every year for a decade, peaking near 99 percent in 2022. This is primarily driven by low wages and a lack of benefits while maintaining a job with a demanding workload.

Unions have little reach in either field: LPPI cites a UCLA/UC Berkeley labor analysis showing construction workers were unionized at 18% in 2024 and retail workers at just 8% — a gap researchers say weakens workers’ ability to bargain even as these jobs keep growing.

A national report the center published in July found that private security guards suffer on-the-job fatal injury rates twice as high as the national workplace average, despite remaining among the lower-paid occupations in the U.S. economy.

Negotiations certainly could become complicated. According to a 2024 study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center, rideshare drivers in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area averaged $7.12 an hour in median net earnings before tips.

A UC Berkeley Labor Center report found annual turnover in investigation and security services reached 89 percent in 2024, against 66 percent across the private sector, a gap that has held every year for a decade and peaked near 99 percent in 2022.