The key to securing better pay might no longer be cavorting with LinkedIn headhunters, but hanging on to your current role for dear life instead.
Driving the news: A Bank of America Institute report found that U.S. workers who switched jobs in July saw a 4.3% growth in wages on average, which is the same growth rate for those who stayed at their jobs, reversing the long-standing habit of job hoppers increasing their salaries.
- Other numbers bear out this trend: the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found that wage growth for workers staying put actually surpassed that of job hoppers between February and July, which has only happened a few times in the past 15 years.
Why it matters: This trend is upending conventional wisdom about what the best move is for career advancement. Job leavers have typically seen growth because better pay is a top reason for jumping ship. But nowadays, a weak job market is giving employers the edge as they can lure desperate jobseekers without higher pay.
Big picture: A 2019 Macdonald-Laurier Institute report found that Canadian job leavers averaged a 15.4% wage bump between 2010 and 2015 compared to 2.9% for job stayers. However, a weak labour market that’s in the process of shedding bodies, with a youth unemployment rate not seen since the early 1990s, means the wage trend could be turning here, too.—QH