Job Hopping After COVID: Why Millennials and Women Do It Most

It’s no secret that the youngest members of the workforce have some different ideas when it comes to employee loyalty and job tenure. Now, LinkedIn data shows just how common it is for recent graduates to job-hop.

Who job hops the most?

Industry-hopping is more common among recent graduates and Millennials (those graduating in the years 2001 to 2010) than previous generations. Certain industries seemed to experience more job-hopping than others. In particular, Media & Entertainment, Professional Services and Government, Education and Non-profits saw more job-hopping activity whereas the Oil & Energy, Manufacturing, Industrial and Transportation industries saw the least job turnover among recent graduates.

Women also seem more likely to change jobs than men in every generation. While LinkedIn reports that the differences are not statistically significant, the latest cohort of college graduates that LinkedIn studied (those graduating between 2006-2010) seemed to show the biggest difference between men and women when it came to job-hopping.

Whether you’re an employee or an employer, this data shows that job-hopping isn’t just in your imagination. Millennials are changing jobs frequently at the outset of their careers and millennial women, in particular, are the hardest group of employees to retain. 

People, and especially women, may leave job to find ones that offer much more stability, less stress, and/or more flexibility, especially during and after the COVID-19 era. After all, women have been adversely impacted by the pandemic, according to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. Women tend to work the lion’s share of the frontlines in both healthcare and the travel industry, which was hit hard by the pandemic. Add that to the antiquated gender roles that give women far more responsibilities at home, as well as the economic downturn that’s disproportionately affected women-owned businesses and pushed more women than men out of the workforce. It's safe to say that women have had to bear the biggest brunt of this virus.

Of course, job stability during a poor economy is key. All over the world, from a sample of 55 countries, there were 1.7 times as many women as men outside the labor force. This equates to 321 million women compared to 182 men worldwide at the end of June already. 

"Progress for women in work are likely to have regressed to 2017 levels by the end of 2021 due to COVID-19," according to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

Decreased stress and flexibility are also big. A wealth of studies has shown that flexibility has always been a major benefit that people, especially working women, have wanted. And with women taking on more work as professionals and as parents who are at home more often these days, this is going to be ever more key.