Gen Z can no longer hop to the top.
The days of jumping from role to role to boost salaries are over in the current job market, Fortune reports.
According to new data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, workers who remained in their current jobs earned a 4.6% salary bump in January and February while those who changed roles during the same time frame saw a 4.8% increase.
But the findings are a stark contrast from years past. In 2023, a job-hopper received a median raise of 7.7%, whereas an employee who stayed in their role only got a pay increase of 5.6%.
In fact, per Fortune, the pay difference between workers who stay versus those who move is at the lowest level in a decade.
Even quit rates have hit the lowest point since 2020. Last year, only 39.6 million Americans quit their jobs, while in 2022, more than 50 million workers did the same, according to US Labor Department data obtained by the Wall Street Journal.
A new Harris Poll survey found that 70% of American workers believe they’d struggle to find a new, better job than the one they currently have — while three in four people claim that employers have the upper hand in the job market.
Job-hopping was once the generally accepted norm, and one that Gen Z took part in.
Citing 2023 data from ResumeLab, Fortune reported that 83% of Gen Z employees called themselves “job-hoppers.” And, according to an H&R Block study, almost one-third of Gen Zers switched jobs, many to score better pay.
Resume Genius also found that over half of Gen Z workers believe that changing jobs every two or three years is acceptable, despite bosses arguing otherwise.
Recruiting experts told Fortune that employees can job-hop, but they should demonstrate longevity at an organization eventually.
“You just need to be patient in the journey,” Sarah Walker, the UK chief executive at Cisco, told Fortune, adding that it took her 25 years at the company to get to where she is now.
“As a society, we’ve moved on to where everything is immediate, and that does bleed into people’s expectations of how quickly progression should be made and the pressure that people put on themselves to say, ‘I have to get promoted within a year and if I haven’t, then that means I’m not on the right trajectory, and therefore I’m going to go elsewhere and see if I can get there any quicker.’”
