Meanings
- UKuncountablebusinessDecrease of workforce caused by non-replacement of retiring or voluntarily resigning employees and not by deliberate layoffs.
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.
1962 October, “Talking of Trains: B.R. works staff cut by a third”, in Modern Railways, page 2211 more example
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.
2023 March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 39Synonyms: attrition
Synonyms & antonyms
nounDecrease of workforce caused by non-replacement of retiring or voluntarily resigning employees and not by deliberate layoffs.
Translations
Dutch natuurlijk verloop
- natuurlijk verloopnatural workforce attrition
Finnish luonnollinen poistuma
- luonnollinen poistumanatural workforce attrition
Cite this entry
natural wastage. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/natural%20wastage
“natural wastage.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/natural%20wastage. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “natural wastage,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/natural%20wastage.
Source: natural wastage on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.