Fewer people are changing jobs than at almost any time over the past 50 years.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found the job mobility rate had fallen for the second year in a row, with 7.7 percent of employed people changing their employer or business in the year to February 2025.
ABS Head of Labour Statistics Sean Crick said 1.1 million people changed jobs, a small decrease from the year to February 2024.
“This follows a rise in job mobility over the COVID period, where the job mobility rate increased to 9.6 percent in February 2023,” Mr Crick said.
The data shows 2021 (7.5 percent) was the only year with a lower mobility rate, with 2017 matching the 7.7 percent rate, which is a far cry from the likes of 1972 (17.4 percent), 1988 (17.9 percent) and 1989 (19.5 percent).
Mr Crick said the job mobility rate for employees was almost nine percent, compared with less than three per cent for self-employed people.
“Job mobility tends to decrease with age, with people aged 15 to 24 having the highest job mobility rate at around 12 percent.
“In contrast, for workers aged 65 years and over it was one percent.”
He said the Australian Capital Territory continued to have the highest job mobility rate, with 11 percent of workers changing jobs, followed by Queensland (nine percent).
Mr Crick said Sales Workers (9.9 percent) and Community and Personal Workers (9.5 percent) were the most job mobile occupations.
“Of the 1.1 million people who changed jobs during the year to February 2025, almost two-thirds (62 percent) remained in the same occupation,” he said.
