Economy spurs some to seek new jobs

Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY

The new year is expected to usher in a flurry of job hopping as employees frustrated by years of incremental raises and scarce advancement opportunities begin shopping for new employers. Nearly half of U.S. companies face an employee exodus as the economy improves, according to a survey by Novations Selection, Development and Communication, a performance improvement firm. Typically, fewer than 10% of employers would expect such turnover.

Other surveys back up Novations' findings. More than half of workers would like to leave their jobs for new opportunities, according to a survey by Spherion, a recruiting and outsourcing company. A survey by Hudson Global Resources found 42% of workers are somewhat to very likely to look for a new job in the coming year.

And 38% of human resource professionals surveyed say they have noticed an increase in turnover since the beginning of 2004, according to the Society for Human Resource Management and CareerJournal.com. Why such job hopping is expected:

• Dissatisfaction with pay. Job-hopping employees are looking for more money: For the fourth-consecutive year, raises will be below 4%, says Workforce Management, a business publication.

Average weekly earnings rose barely 2% in the 12 months ended in November — less than the 3.5% increase in the consumer price index over the same period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Pent-up demand. Some workers have felt stuck due to an anemic job market. The median number of years that wage and salary workers had been with their current employer was four years in January 2004, according to data from Department of Labor. That compares with 3.7 years in January 2002.

Nearly 31% of workers age 25 and older had 10 or more years of tenure with their current employer in January 2004. The total separations, or turnover, rate (the number of separations during the month divided by employment) was 3.2% in October. It was 3.0% in October of 2003. The job openings rate has generally seen an upward trend since August 2003.

• Burnout. Workers also are feeling frazzled by productivity demands wrought by the recession and downsizing, even as the pace of layoffs slows. In December, the Labor Department says productivity, or output per worker, rose at a 2.4% annual rate in the business sector for the third quarter of 2004.