The myth of the job-hopping generation

Gen Z are chided for being flaky about work. Turns out they don’t change roles any more or less than previous generations

IN THE PAST five or so years, Gen Z has developed a reputation as supposed job-hoppers. We’ve certainly written lots on the perceived trend ― a shift in thinking that workplace loyalty has changed the way people approach career and income development. Earlier this year, Revelio Labs called it a “feature, not a bug” for Gen Zers, and claimed “their behaviour is diverging sharply from that of previous generations.”

Click here to view this article in the London Inc. Worklife newsletter

But is it? A study came out last week from the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) challenging this notion. They checked the tape, and found that Boomers and Gen Xers (some of whom are awful quick to throw stones were job-hoppers once, too, and behaved in similar ways to Gen Z now.

Story Continues Below

 

“Shorter job tenure among younger workers is not a new trend, and it’s largely consistent across generations,” the study found. In 1983, the median job tenure of young employees was 3.0 years; in 2024, that study found the median tenure of the same age group to be 2.7 years, a difference of about three and a half months.

“Younger workers will always have shorter average and median tenures because they haven’t had the time to be employed for as long, and younger workers will change more frequently than older workers as they look for the job or career that is right for them. But these are not new phenomena.”

Story Continues Below

 

The NIRS’ interest in this data stems from trying to test the often-cited idea that younger workers would be better served by more flexible benefits, or that they aren’t interested in defined benefit pensions. Both ideas are often pushed by employers, but the NIRS was interested in whether it held water.

“Employers, policymakers and others involved in employee benefit design and administration should beware of ascribing overly broad and largely inaccurate beliefs to specific groups of younger workers,” they concluded. It might suggest that employers who are out there pushing the idea of less secure benefits while also criticizing low retention rates are, in effect, talking in circles. Kieran Delamont