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- Gen Z workers expect to change careers three times in their lives.
- That's according to a new survey by Resource Solutions of 2,000 employed adults in the UK.
- It found that 73% of Gen Z are not afraid to take a pay cut to pursue a more fulfilling career.
Gen Z workers are known for their job-hopping tendencies, and a new survey has found that they expect to change their careers at least three times over their lifetimes.
Recruitment consultancy firm Resource Solutions recently surveyed 2,000 adults in the UK between the ages of 18 and 65 who have been employed in the past year.
It found that Gen Z plans to switch careers at least three times over their working life, which is once more than any other generation before them.
Gen Z are more likely to prioritize their wellbeing and happiness than other generations. Around 73% of Gen Z said they're willing to take a big pay cut or step down to pursue a more fulfilling career path, per the survey.
Meanwhile, 24% of Gen X and 36% of Baby Boomers were unwilling to ruin their career progression for the sake of better job satisfaction.
Almost two-thirds of Gen Z workers plan to leave their current employer within the next two years but almost half of Millennials and Boomers expect to stay for five years or longer. Nearly two-thirds of Gen X also expect to stay with their companies longer than five years.
"What a career meant 10, 20, or 30 years ago is no longer what it means to young professionals today," Kristen Buckheit, managing director of EMEA at Resource Solutions said in the release.
"Our data indicates an awareness from young professionals that more career changes may be necessary throughout their working life, which could be down to a myriad of elements impacting this generation.
"People are retiring later in life, the accelerated pace of technological advances — notably with AI — may render certain roles obsolete, and as the first to grow up with the internet, their acute awareness of how the world is changing is bound to impact how they feel about their future or purpose," she added.
A survey of 10,000 Gen Zers in the US and UK by management consultancy firm Oliver Wyman earlier this year found that 70% who said they're "loyal" to their companies are either actively or passively looking for a new job.
It may be that Gen Z doesn't share the same hang-ups about job-hopping as older generations because they think that being loyal to companies doesn't always pay off.
A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in 2022 conducted deep in the time of the "Great Resignation" found that job hoppers secured a pay rise of 8.5% compared to 5.9% for those who stayed in the same role.
Nick Bunker, the economic research director for North America at Indeed's Hiring Lab, previously told Insider that "switching jobs is one of the best ways to make more money."
However, it might not look so great on paper.
Jeff Hyman, the CEO of a recruitment firm in Chicago, Recruit Rockstars, told The New York Times: "Employers start to question the candidate's decision-making ability and judgment," if they are spending little time in various roles.
Plus, it's difficult for hiring managers to assess a candidate's performance when they've been in a role for less than two years and it can be off-putting for more traditional employers, he said.