Voluntary attrition in India fell from 12.1% in 2021 to 11.9% in 2024, across industries

Voluntary attrition in the agriculture and chemical space was the maximum in 2024, at 13.6 per cent and the minimum in the automotive space, at 8.2 per cent in 2024, says the Mercer TRS Survey report.

When employees choose to quit their job on their own, it is called voluntary attrition. They could make this choice because they are unhappy at the organisation or are fed up of the culture at the workplace. When employees retire or move on from one job to take up another job offer, that is also called voluntary attrition. Some voluntary attrition happens when employees decide to pursue higher education or to become entrepreneurs. The reason for leaving does not always have to be related to the job or business, it could be personal too. What is important is that studying attrition trends over a few years allows employers to introspect and find out if there are any issues being faced by employees in the organisation.

In the Indian retail space, voluntary attrition rose from 12.9 per cent in 2021 to 14 per cent in 2022 and further up to 14.6 per cent in 2023, only to fall to 12.4 per cent in 2024.

In the life sciences space, attrition was 11.8 per cent in 2021, which spiked to 15 per cent the following year, and dropped to 14.5 per cent in 2022 and finally to 11.3 per cent in 2024.

Attrition in the automotive space rose from 9.2 per cent in 2021 to 11.4 per cent in 2022. However, after that it kept falling, to 8.7 per cent in 2023 and then to 8.2 per cent in 2024.

The maximum attrition in 2021 was seen in the SSO industry. It was 17.3 per cent in 2021, which dropped to 16 per cent in 2022, then to 12.3 per cent in 2023 and finally stood at 13 per cent in 2024.

In 2021, the hi-tech space saw attrition to the tune of a whopping 15 per cent. This went up even higher to 17.1 per cent in 2022. However, in 2023, it fell drastically to 10 per cent, and in 2024 it only rose marginally to 10.3 per cent.

The manufacturing sector has been witnessing rising voluntary attrition since 2021, after falling briefly in 2023. It was 9.5 per cent in 2021, but rose to 11.4 per cent in 2022. The attrition rate dropped to 9.9 per cent in 2023 only to rise again to 11.9 per cent in 2024.