Termination of employment or separation of employment is an employee's departure from a job and the end of an employee's duration with an employer. Termination may be voluntary on the employee's part, or it may be at the hands of the employer, often in the form of dismissal (firing) or a layoff. Dismissal or firing is usually thought to be the employee's fault, whereas a layoff is generally done for business reasons (for instance, a business slowdown, or an economic downturn) outside the employee's performance.

Firing carries a stigma in many cultures and may hinder the jobseeker's chances of finding new employment, particularly if they have been terminated from a previous job. Jobseekers sometimes do not mention jobs from which they were fired on their resumes; accordingly, unexplained gaps in employment, and refusal or failure to contact previous employers are often regarded as "red flags".