Work and employment advice: Staff are sticking around

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Tim Duggan Work columnist October 16, 2025 — 1.27pm

There’s an intriguing trend happening in the job market right now. In previous years, employees usually jumped from job to job, searching for better terms and loftier titles as they zigzagged their way up the career ladder. But we’re now starting to see the opposite of this, with workers staying in their jobs for longer.

This is referred to as “job hugging”, in which people choose stability and security over switching roles – and it’s one of the earliest signs of a jittery market.

If you’ve ever clung onto a role long past its expiry date, or because you’ve told yourself that things are going to get better one day, you’ve probably hugged your job too tightly.

Data from the Australian Bureau of