natural wastage

natural wastage (uncountable)

1. (Britain, business) Decrease of workforce caused by non-replacement of retiring or voluntarily resigning employees and not by deliberate layoffs.
   • 1962 October, “Talking of Trains: B.R. works staff cut by a third”, in Modern Railways, page 221:

     Of the total labour force now threatened with redundancy, of course, a proportion will be covered by natural wastage, so that the number eventually thrown out of railway work will be well below 19,000.

   • 2023 March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 39:

     From just over 476,500 employees in 1962, by 1973 the total was just over 250,000. Much of this was achieved via 'natural wastage' - controlling recruitment closely and not replacing staff as they retired.

• attrition

• redundancy