The proportion of the labour force who quit their jobs each year for reasons other than being sacked by their employer. This includes workers who retire, and those who leave for personal reasons. These vary greatly, including the need to look after children or sick or elderly relatives, the fact that a spouse is moving jobs, taking up a full-time educational course, desire to broaden their experience to improve their curriculum vitae, having found a better job, dislike of the boss, or sheer boredom. For these various reasons an appreciable percentage of a firm's labour force will leave in any year: this often makes possible gradual reduction in the labour force without the need for redundancy.

• working, short-time
• work in progress
• works council
• works, public
• work study
• World Bank
• World Trade Organization
• worth, net
• write off
• wrongful dismissal
• WTO
• X-efficiency
• X-inefficiency
• Yaoundé Convention
• year
• yen
• yield
• yield curve
• yield gap
• zero-base budgeting
• zero growth
• zero-rated
• zero-sum game
• zone
• zoning