The New Workplace Trend: 'Job Hugging'

It wasn't too long ago that workers seemed to have all the leverage: So many people were quitting their jobs for better ones that economists called it the "great resignation." It appears the polar opposite is now afoot: In an analysis, the consulting firm Korn Ferry has coined the phrase "job hugging" to describe how workers are clinging to their jobs these days because the labor market is so tough.

• A "sense of global events as unpredictable and unprecedented, combined with looming AI disruption, is making workers increasingly unsure—which can lead them to stay in holding patterns, rather than developing their skills and careers," it reads. "Their torpor, in turn, blocks up-and-coming employees. 'That's the danger of this job market,'" says the firm's Matt Bohn.

• "The phrase 'job hugging' just kind of coined itself, because of the reluctance of especially top performers to leave where they're currently at," Stacy DeCesaro, a managing consultant at Korn Ferry, tells Business Insider.
• The sentiment is seen in labor stats, which point to the "weakest job creation" in the US since 2010, excluding the pandemic, per Axios. And a Zip Recruiter poll found that 38% of job seekers in the second quarter said they aren't confident jobs are plentiful, up from 26% in the same quarter of 2022.
• The problem with all this is that "job hugging" means people are staying in jobs they don't like, which is stoking resentment toward their employers, per Fortune. Its piece quotes a workplace expert who predicts another "great resignation" as a result, when market conditions improve.