British firms fear more staff will quit their jobs in January    

People wearing face masks walking along Oxford Street, London.

UK businesses were hit by rising numbers of staff leaving their jobs voluntarily during 2021, with many employers facing the prospect of more resignations and a hiring crunch going into the third year of the pandemic, new research shows.

Voluntary departures between April and December this year were higher than in the same period in 2019, according to 45% of managers surveyed by the Chartered Management Institute for Bloomberg News. More managers at large organisations saw staff leave than those at smaller companies. In addition, 60% of managers in the private sector said it is now harder to recruit for job roles than it was pre-Covid-19.