The resignation rate among workers on permanent contracts fell in 2023, according to HR specialist Partena Professional on Thursday.
The trend affects young workers in particular, who, after being highly mobile in 2020 and 2021, have been less inclined to leave their jobs this year.
With one resignation for every 228 employees in the first eight months of 2023, voluntary departure rates have fallen by 30% in one year, according to Partena’s figures. During the same period in 2022, one employee in 160 resigned.
Among these workers, it is young people aged between 20 and 29 who seem to have changed behaviour the most, with a 39% drop in resignations between 2022 and 2023.
In terms of level of education, those with a university master’s degree are the most likely to leave their job. However, the trend in this group is also downwards, with 29.76% fewer resignations between 2022 and 2023.
For workers with a secondary education, who are usually more loyal to their employer, the resignation rate fell by 32.81% over the same period.
By region and gender
The downward trend is also confirmed across the country, with divergences between regions. The Brussels-Capital region has the highest voluntary departure rate (0.52% of workers), closely followed by Flanders (0.51%). In Wallonia, the resignation rate is just 0.32%.
Finally, following this downward trend, the resignation rate stood at 0.45% for women and 0.41% for men for the first eight months of 2023.
The sample studied by Partena was made up of 261,000 employees on permanent contracts, all of whom worked at least one day between January 2019 and August 2023.
