Twenty-one percent of millennials have changed jobs within the past year, according to a new Gallup survey, and 60% say they’re open to new job opportunities. At the same time, only half of millennials say they plan to be with their company one year from now, and 50% also say they would consider taking a new job for a raise of 20% or less.
“This trend is troublesome for leaders because these workers currently make up 38% of the U.S. workforce,” reads the Gallup report. “Some estimate that they will make up as much as 75% of it by 2025.”
Millennial job-hopping can cost organizations a lot of money when talent goes walking out the door. Gallup pegs the replacement cost of an employee at 150% of his or her annual salary or more—for example, as much as $150,000 or more for a worker with an annual salary of $100,000. And Gallup estimates show that millennial turnover as a result of poor employee engagement costs the U.S. economy $30.5 billion a year.
But Gallup says companies shouldn’t accept millennial job-hopping as the new norm, or assume they can’t keep millennials on their payrolls.
“Employers are making a costly mistake if they write the job-hopping tendency off as unchangeable or out of their control,” reads the report. “While there is some truth to the notion that millennials as a whole tend to be job-hoppers, a closer examination of the data shows that engagement is at the root of the issue.”
The survey shows 71% of millennials—or those born between 1980 and 1996—are either not engaged or are actively disengaged on the job. Millennials who are engaged at work demonstrate considerably greater loyalty to their employers, Gallup says.
“Millennials who are engaged at work are 26% less likely than millennials who aren’t engaged to say they would consider taking a job with a different company for a raise of 20% or less,” reads the report. “Engaged millennials are also 64% less likely to say they will switch jobs if the job market improves in the next 12 months compared with millennials who are actively disengaged who say the same.”
