Average attrition rate at India Inc declined in 2024 amidst global uncertainties

With the global economy facing turbulent times, companies and employees have both become more cautious. A new report has highlighted that employee attrition in India Inc declined in 2024 as workers chose to prioritise stability over career moves amidst muted salary growth

According to the third edition of the Deloitte India Talent Outlook Survey, at a pan-India level, organisations reported an average attrition rate of 17.4% in 2024, a marginal decline from 18.1% in 2023.

It revealed that attrition rates decreased across various sectors. In the IT sector, average attrition rate in 2024 declined to 15.1% from 19.3% in 2023 while in the ITeS segment, it fell to 10.8% from 18.7% in 2023. Similarly in life sciences, attrition rate reduced to 13.3% in 2024 from 18% in 2023 while in manufacturing the attrition rate fell to 10.6% in 2024 from an average 12.1% in 2023. There was also a marginal decrease in the average attrition in sector of financial services and other services.

However, surprisingly, sentiments differed in the consumer segment where the average attrition rate increased to 18.4% in 2024 from 17.4% in 2023.

“Amid market uncertainties and reduced hiring demand, job stability and internal growth opportunities have emerged as key drivers of retention, taking priority over year-on-year increments,” noted the report.

Prakhar Tripathi, Partner, Deloitte India elaborated that before launching of the survey the company spoke to Chief Human Resources Officers of four firms including a diversified conglomerate, a banking major, a consumer company as well as a tech giant on what is happening in the economy.

“We covered all sectors because we had the survey coming from clients, but we also wanted to stress test what’s happening on the attrition side. Stability is what people are looking for at this point in time as people can see that businesses are facing headwinds,” he highlighted.

The Deloitte India Talent Outlook 2025 is a survey that aims to provide decision-makers with an overview of compensation, performance, talent management and HR technology data and trends from over 500 companies across seven sectors.

It revealed that as Indian companies navigate global and local headwinds, there is a clear focus on optimising compensation cost budgets, with pay increases for 2025 being forecast at 8.8% in 2025 compared with 9% in 2024. “Average India increment expected to be the lowest in a decade, barring 2020–2021,” it said. The survey shows 75% of companies will either reduce or keep their pay increases the same as the last year.