In Ethiopia, following the market economy declaration by the existing government,rnmany insurance companies have been opened. Thus, the demand for professionals inrnthe induslly has been increased. As a result the number of insurance professionalsrnwho are leaving insurance companies is increasing. Each time a position is vacated,rneither voluntarily or involuntarily, a new employee must be hired and trained. Thisrnreplacement cycle is known as turnover (Robert 2002:395).rnThis study has attempted to analyze the question, "is voluntary turnover higher in thernprivate companies or in the government?" The analysis was done by taking jobrnsatisfaction parameters such as compensation system, promotion policy, supervisors'rnbehaviour and working environment. It also assessed the dominant causes ofrnvoluntary turnover in the private and government insurance companies.rnTo answer this question and to make the assessment, three private insurancerncompanies, namely Nile, Nyala and United Insurance Share Companies andrnEthiopian Insurance Corporation are selected. Stratified and convenient samplingrntechniques are used to select subjects from the existing and ex-employees of thernidentified insurance companies respectively. Then a total of 160 and 60rnquestionnaires are distributed to the existing and ex-employees of those insurancerncompanies respectively.rnThe findings from the collected data depict that employees' turnover in the privaterninsurance companies are higher than the government counterpart. The reasons forrnthese are that the private insurance ex-employees were highly dissatisfied with thernworking environment, supervisors' behaviour and promotion policy of their respectiverncompanies. Moreover, because of the dissatisfaction with promotion policy andrncompensation system, more than two-third of the privates and half of the governmentrncurrent employees have an intension to quit their jobs.rnTo conclude, since employee turnover is a problem for insurance companies and thernrate is still increasing at an increasing rate, all of the previously identified insurancerncompanies should reconsider their compensation system, promotion policy, workingrnenvironment in order to build satisfied employees who work at greater productivityrnrates and enhance the level of profits.