Korn Ferry labeled a nationwide era of "job hugging" as workers increasingly cling to jobs amid economic uncertainty, layoffs, and AI disruption. Wage-driven job hopping produced strong salary gains in recent years, with a 2023 Resume Builder survey finding 62% left for higher pay, 80% of leavers reporting increases, and about one-fifth gaining $50,000 or more. Recent surveys show a sharp cooldown: most employees plan to stay at least six months, and Gen Z reports the highest intent to remain. Large announced layoffs and weak job creation have deepened labor-market pessimism and reduced incentives to switch employers.
This month, the global organizational consultancy firm Korn Ferry declared that we've entered a nationwide era of "job hugging," a term to describe the trend of workers increasingly holding onto their positions for dear life amidst economic uncertainty, layoffs, and AI disruption. Now, a new report from the Bank of America Institute is shedding fresh light on the trend, showing that workers may be choosing to cling onto their current jobs because "job hopping" is no longer profitable.
A few years ago, job hopping-or moving from company to company in search of better opportunities- was seen as a popular way to achieve a salary and resume boost. In 2023, a Resume Builder survey of 1,000 Gen Zers and millennials found that 62% percent of respondents had left their jobs because they wanted a higher salary, and 80% of people who left said they got a salary increase. Of the self-proclaimed job hoppers, about a fifth received a boost of $50,000 or more.
Job seekers are currently feel pretty pessimistic about the labor market, and for good reason: A recent report from global outplacement and coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that through the end of July, U.S.-based employers had announced more than 800,000 job eliminations in 2025, while, per a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the U.S. economy created just 73,000 new jobs in July.
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