Rising resignation rates suggest recovering jobs market

An increase in voluntary resignations in private-sector services is suggesting a more buoyant recruitment market as employees have growing confidence to seek new employment, according to new research from XpertHR.

An average of one employee in 10 (10.6%) resigned from their job in 2012, compared with 9.3% in 2011, according to XpertHR’s 2013 labour turnover report.

Private-sector-services employers experienced the highest resignation rates in the economy, with an average of 12.2%, followed by the public sector (8.1%) and manufacturing-and-production firms (7%).

In private-sector services, voluntary staff departures have been more prevalent for the past three years than in other broad sectors. The average figure for voluntary resignations for the sector was 10.6% in 2010, compared with 11% in 2011 and 12.2% in 2012.

Rachel Suff, XpertHR good practice editor and the report’s author, said: “The slow but steady increase in the voluntary resignation rate recorded for private-sector services year-on-year suggests that employees in these organisations have more confidence to seek new employment.

“The private sector overall has been quicker to recover from the tough economic climate and this could contribute to greater buoyancy in the jobs market. Voluntary resignations have been consistently higher in this part of the economy compared with the public and manufacturing-and-production sectors, and although there could be other factors affecting this trend the figures do suggest that job opportunities are improving in at least parts of private-sector services.”

Average total labour turnover (the proportion of all employees who have left an organisation through resignation, retirement, dismissal or redundancy) was 17% in 2012 – 19.1% in private-sector services, 12.6% in manufacturing and production and 13.9% in the public sector.

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