Job hopping or job for life? What applicants want today

Digitization and artificial intelligence change the world of work at a rapid pace. Numerous industries are faced with a fundamental structural change. The fact that people do the same job from starting their career to retirement is no longer the rule. This ensures uncertainty for many – but also opens up new job opportunities. What predominates?

The recruiting platform Softgarden has asked 5475 people who have currently applied to a new position. The respondents came from all ages and many different industries, with an educational background from the secondary school to the university degree.

The results, the softgarden of the star made available in advance are ambivalent: on the one hand, many people want stable conditions in the job. On the other hand, most respondents are open to changes and are ready to actively tackle them. The six most exciting points:

After many good years, the labor market becomes more difficult for applicants. This is also reflected in the desire for safe employment: overwhelming 96 percent of the applicants surveyed is “important” or “very important” long -term job stability. Only 4 percent do not attach great importance to it. Job stability is particularly important to people with simple schooling, while academics look at it a little more relaxed. In addition, the proportion of “very important” nations is higher for full-time employees than for part-time forces.

But what do people actually mean by job stability today? Only a minority of 28 percent would like the classic model of the “lifelong employer”, to which one remains loyal to retire. A majority of 52 percent, on the other hand, favor “stable conditions” with occasional job changes every five to ten years. And every fifth is even open to frequent job hopping according to the motto: “Care opportunities as soon as they offer themselves.”

For example, it can be seen from how much of someone job security is worth the job security whether he or she would be willing to do without money. In fact, more than every second respondent would be willing to do without part of the salary for long -term employment. Some would even accept 10 percent of the gross salary or more if that meant more in long -term certainty.

A deeper look at the data shows that only two groups mostly exclude a waiver of salary – women and people with a simple school leaving certificate. An explanation for this would be that these people earn less on average and therefore less earnings can afford less.

The professional opportunities are not always around the corner. A majority of respondents would also move to another city for a new job. Only 47 percent categorically rule out a change of residence. The bottom line is that there is an increasing willingness to move, because around 52 percent had excluded a move in the forerunner survey a year ago. “The first crisis phenomena in the Mindset of the candidates may be shown here,” the current study said. Every fourth would even leave everything behind for the job and pull more than 300 kilometers away.

Of course, the willingness to move many personal factors depends. Unsurprisingly, younger under the age of 24 are much more open than older ones aged 45 and over. In addition, more men would move to a new job than women and more academics as a non -academic. Asked about family conditions and whether children are involved.

Many people currently live in the awareness that they – also professionally – live in great upheavals in a time. Three out of four respondents assume that their job will change significantly over the next five years. And: more than 90 percent describe themselves as open to changes.

Some more answers on the subject show how much this applies. For example, 98 percent of those surveyed are willing to adapt and further train new requirements in the job. 63 percent would basically be ready to change the industry and 67 percent can imagine doing a completely different job. However, only one in three would also be willing to change employers more often. In addition to fundamental willingness to develop further, the desire to do this with the same employer is also swinging here.

The applicants were also asked what they want to do for their professional training in the next five years. Six out of ten are therefore planning a longer further training of half a year or more, including an above -average number of younger people. Nine out of ten respondents rely on shorter seminars and further training, especially women and academics. Especially among academics, the willingness is also high to train independently through specialist literature, podcasts or video tutorials-or to acquire new skills such as dealing with software. An outstanding topic is artificial intelligence: three out of four respondents want to deal intensively with the possibilities that AI offers.

When it comes to further training, the employees surveyed see not only themselves as responsibility, but also their employer. For the question of whether you want to stay with an employer in the long term, 53 percent of the respondents consider it “very important” and another 41 percent for “important” that he invests a lot in their further training.

Surprisingly: a majority decided to choose whether the employer should pay you more salary or finance further training. Even the question of more vacation or more working hours for further training was the preference for more further training. “The times when further training offers were perceived as a nice add-on are over,” says the study. Further training is no longer a benefit, but a hard criterion in the competition for capable people.