From ‘great resignation’ to ‘big stay’ in 2024: Four in five employees don’t plan to change jobs until 2025

Improved work-life balance is the most common reason employees are now more likely to stay in a job.

A new survey from Ringover found that four out of five employees (79.6%) don’t plan on changing jobs until at least 2025, based on the responses of 1,049 American adults.

According to the data, the average length of time the respondents stayed in their previous jobs was 1.6 years. However, when asked about how much longer they plan to stay in their current jobs, the average answer rose to 2.4 years, showing today’s employees are more inclined to stay in their present jobs for a longer period.

What has changed?

The survey results seem to mark a turn from the wave of ‘great resignation’ to the stage of ‘big stay’. In 2021, approximately 47mn Americans left their jobs. Dr. Anthony Klotz, Associate Professor at UCL School of Management in London, had therefore coined the phrase ‘the great resignation’ to describe this phenomenon of an increasing number of people leaving their jobs during the pandemic.

Per his prediction, this phenomenon reached its plateau in 2023. The resignation rates have now returned to pre-pandemic levels, and the hiring rate is the lowest since 2014. The labour market is likely to step into the stage of ‘the big stay’.

What makes people stay or leave?

Delving deeper into the reasons why people stay or leave their jobs, the survey revealed that the most common reasons for employees to stay are because they find their work interesting (40.9%), financial stability (38.4%), and because they like their management (30.4%).

In addition to the ones mentioned above, other reasons for employees to stay are:

• colleagues (29.9%)
• concerns of looking like a ‘job hopper’ (25.4%)
• fits around my schedule (23.5%)
• career progression (21.3%)
• good pay (20.5%)
• company perks (16.6%)
• too much effort to job hunt (13.7%)
• changing companies feels risky (9.6%)
• few job opportunities (5.3%)

The respondents were also asked, “If you are more/less likely to look for a new job than two to three years ago, why?”. The results showed that employees are less likely to job hunt now than during the pandemic, citing improved work-life balance (43.7%) and general improvements in the company (42%).

For those who are less likely to look for new jobs, the reasons are:

• better work-life balance (43.7%)
• company improvements (42%)
• I only recently started this role/job (38.6%)
• economic uncertainty (35.7%)
• I have more dependents and can’t risk a move (27.8%)
• I’m in my dream role/job (18.1%)

On the contrary, those who are more likely to look for a new job now than two to three years ago cited a lack of career progression as their main incentive (40%), a new challenge (37%), and because the company was asking for more in-person work (34.8%).

The survey also found that although 65.1% of the respondents felt less ambitious than they did two years ago, only 10.5% said they were disengaged at work. Women were more likely to report being highly engaged at work (31.2%) than men (19.9%).

What are the other trends to note?

Gen Z workers show more flexibility to “keep their options open”. Despite no active plans to leave their jobs, they are nearly twice as likely than average to have a wandering eye, with nine in ten of them (92.3%) sometimes or actively looking for new opportunities.

On the other hand, reflective of the pandemic freelance boom, the majority (65.4%) of freelancers surveyed began freelancing within the last three years, with the largest proportion (29.2%) setting up two to three years ago. Gen Z and Millennials are most likely to be freelancers, with almost nine in ten (87.3%), followed by 71.8% of people aged 28 to 43.

However, half (51.2%) of freelancers surveyed are actively looking for jobs in companies. For those who have freelanced but don’t right now, the factors to quit freelancing include too much administration (47.3%), lack of opportunities (39.7%), financial insecurity (37.7%), and receiving an attractive job offer (35.6%).

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Lead image / 123RF