The tides are turning in a labor market that once rewarded constant movement. Back in March 2024, ADP reported that job switchers saw a median year-over-year pay increase of 10%, the strongest jump since July 2023. Job stayers, however, earned just a 5.1% annual gain, thus reinforcing the pull towards the “greener grass” mentality that powered ambitious workers to chase bigger titles, bigger salaries, and bigger leaps. The move also propelled careers to keep moving, and companies scrambling to keep talent from walking out the door. But new data in 2025 shows that the financial advantage of switching roles has shrunk to its weakest point in a decade.
The great slowdown in job switching
Fast-forward to 2025, that gap has nearly closed: switchers now average 4.8% raises, barely higher than the 4.6% increases for workers who remain in their roles. The shift can be noticed in long-term trends. As of 2024, the average U.S. employee spends ~3.9 years with an employer, a decrease from ~4.1 years in Jan 2022 and well below the ~4.6 years seen in the early 2010s, when post-recession job security was still prized.
The outcome thus far has been that company life cycles have become shorter, institutional memory grows thinner, and organization is harder to sustain when the top performers rotate out every few years.
A job-huggers market
Job-hopping was one of the most reliable ways to boost income until it wasn’t. Research from Vanguard highlighted the long-term trade-offs. Among more than 50,000 job switchers, workers beginning at a $60,000 salary who changed jobs eight times over their career forfeited roughly $300,000 in retirement savings. According to the research, a typical (median) job switcher experienced a 10% pay increase. But the same worker also saw a 0.7-percentage-point drop in their saving rate. The short-term advantage is shrinking too. In the U.K., a 2025 comparison shows job hoppers earning 4.8% increases versus 4.6% for stayers — a difference of just £75 a year based on the average salary of £37,430. This is an astonishingly small payoff for a career gamble that once defined upward mobility.
As some workers are gripping their current roles more tightly in the labor market; trend consultants at Korn Ferry have dubbed “job hugging,” or holding onto a job “for dear life.” “There’s quite a bit of uncertainty in the world — economic, political, global,” said Matt Bohn, an executive search consultant at the firm. “Uncertainty causes people to naturally remain in a holding pattern.”
The numbers reflect the same. In July, job stayers saw wages grow at 4.1% annually, compared with 4% for switchers, according to Atlanta Fed data. Economists say this sustained reversal points to underlying labor-market weakness: hiring has fallen to its slowest pace in more than a decade (excluding early pandemic months).
The ratio of job openings to unemployed workers has also fallen sharply from 2:1 at its March 2022 peak to roughly 1:1 by June 2025. When external options dry up, the safest move is often not to move at all.
What are the shifts causing job hugging.
1. Labor market uncertainty and slow hiring
The U.S. quits rate has dropped to ~2.0%, the lowest non-pandemic level since 2016. With fewer opportunities to jump to, staying put becomes the default rational choice.
2. AI fears and skill disruption
Workers are increasingly unsure whether their current skills will hold value. In a period of global tension and AI automation, the risks of starting over somewhere new feels higher.
3. Job search is costly
Job searches demand time, money, emotional bandwidth, and risk tolerance. But when pay bumps shrink, the trade-off doesn’t look worth it. Mobility still delivers slightly higher earnings growth, but “slightly” isn’t always enough to justify the churn.
The season to stay
The cultural script of always chasing the next role is losing some of its shine. The market cycle is shifting; the incentives are falling. And sometimes, the smartest career move isn’t moving at all but learning to oppose the idea of a greener meadow somewhere and “to bloom where you’re planted,” at least for a season.