In the UK, job switching is more than a personal decision—it is a clear indicator of how industries move, adapt, and evolve. Recent data gives us a new lens to look at the labour market: in every typical month between 2022 and mid-2025, around 2.4% of UK workers change jobs. Strikingly, nearly two-thirds of these individuals also change their occupation entirely, stepping into new professional territory. This insight, drawn from a broad analysis of CV data, challenges traditional ideas around career stability, development, and what it means to build a workforce for the future.
Labour mobility is not a flat landscape. It is marked by deep contrasts between jobs with high turnover—where workers rarely stay long—and specialist career paths, where people tend to grow roots.
With our experience at EWS Limited, helping employers hire globally and fill skill gaps, we constantly see how this split shapes recruitment challenges and workforce planning. Understanding who stays, who leaves, and why, is key for HR leaders, C-suite executives, and anyone managing a team in the modern labour market.
Let us start with the numbers. According to extensive ONS labour bulletins and official mobility reports, roughly 2.4% of all workers make a job move each month. But it’s not just about company-to-company movement. Nearly 65% of switchers do more—they jump into a different occupation altogether.
We believe this reveals more than simple restlessness. It shows a labour market split between two groups:
This divide has far-reaching effects, both for people building their careers and for organisations trying to retain talent or fill key roles.
Some sectors are almost defined by constant movement. If you have ever worked a holiday shift in a café, you know the feeling. In the UK, entry-level jobs like loading and stocking, food preparation and service, as well as hospitality and tourism stand out for their high monthly job switching rates, which hover around 3.2%.
Most workers in these sectors move not just to another job, but to a completely different field.
We have seen that in hospitality and tourism, for example, about 87% of job switchers leave the sector entirely. In retail roles, this figure is 82%. These positions are often filled by younger workers seeking short-term wages or experience before moving on to something else.
We have spoken with candidates, especially Generation Z and young Millennials, who view these jobs as simple launching pads. This is confirmed by studies on side jobs and financial pressure among young workers. The result is a persistent staffing challenge for employers, who must recruit regularly to keep roles filled as staff move on rapidly.
For employers, high turnover means not only higher recruitment and training costs but also a possible decline in customer service or productivity when new staff have not yet found their footing. High-churn roles create a cycle, where constant recruitment becomes part of daily business rather than an occasional event.
Now, contrast this with fields where people are “sticky”—they switch jobs, but usually remain in their chosen profession. Beauty and wellness, nursing, and electrical engineering have job switching rates of just 1.6% to 1.8% per month. And when people in these fields move, most stay within the sector—just with a new employer or position.
Dentistry is especially strong in occupational loyalty. Only 37% of dental professionals who change jobs actually leave the profession. This pattern is mirrored in software development (41% occupation exit rate), personal care and home health (46%), driving (43%), and nursing (46%). Some roles are even more “sticky”—the data shows dental hygienists (17% exit) and full stack developers (16%) as least likely to leave for another field.
Specialisation keeps people in place—even if they move companies, they stay loyal to their discipline.
So why do some jobs keep people for the long haul?
This is why employee experience and retention is such a focus for us at EWS. Where workers have invested time and effort into building skills, they expect that investment to pay off.
We want to bring the numbers to life. The extremes are telling. On one side, we see extremely high occupation exit rates—jobs where almost everyone who leaves finds something completely different. At the other, professions where people rarely wander.
Job titles with particularly high exit rates include:
In these roles, a job move almost always means leaving the sector altogether.
Job titles that demonstrate greatest loyalty:
Occupation exit rates separate ‘stepping stone’ jobs from those that build careers.
Interestingly, stronger hiring demand inside a field tends to keep people within that sector. When there are more opportunities and healthy competition for skills, people feel more secure. They are more likely to jump to a rival company rather than abandon their hard-won skills for something else. As shown in the ONS jobs and vacancies data, human health and social work saw the largest growth in jobs, indicating robust interior demand and strong sector retention.
On the other hand, when hiring slows, or when promotions and wage growth dry up, people are quicker to rethink their futures elsewhere. If an entry-level worker cannot see a path forward, occupational loyalty drops off. This pattern is a recurring theme in our projects with Series B and C startups and established tech companies, who value forward-thinking workforce solutions.
Jobs become ‘sticky’ when sector demand is strong and career progression is clear.But when workers feel stuck or undervalued, they look outside the sector.
Every company leader we work with is aware of the cost and headache of constant recruitment. For high-churn entry-level sectors, employers are often trying to refill the same roles week after week. This cycle can drive up recruitment costs, stall operational growth, and lead to poorer onboarding experiences.
Meanwhile, firms in specialist, low-churn fields face the opposite dilemma: strong retention but intense competition for a small external talent pool. Hiring from outside can be slow and costly, with new starters needing lengthy training to meet mandatory skill requirements.
So, what can be done? Our experience and UK workforce research suggest two parallel tracks:
Progression and clarity keep workers engaged—no matter the sector.
There is also a broader factor—labour market adjustment. When new technologies, regulations, or economic shocks arrive, the flexibility for workers to move between occupations ensures the economy adapts. Where mobility is low, adjustment takes longer, and businesses can be caught short. In these cases, workforce planning must look to future-proof skills and embrace reskilling.
The story is not only about sectors. Mobility is, in many ways, about social progression. A recent Social Mobility Commission report showed the proportion of people achieving long-range upward occupational mobility is rising. Among those born between 1990 and 1999, 34.6% of men and 36.9% of women moved significantly upward in their careers, outpacing those experiencing downward mobility.
There are strong regional patterns too. For instance, Outer London (West & North West) saw the highest long-range upward mobility (45.7%), while Northern Ireland had the lowest (28.2%). Downward mobility is also higher in some areas than others. This suggests workforce planning and recruitment needs to account for location-specific factors, especially for companies scaling across borders after Brexit. For more insight on this, you may want to review our perspective on hiring in Europe after Brexit.
To give full context, the job switch numbers in this article are based on detailed CV data, covering the period from 2022 to mid-2025. Job switches are counted where candidates have two jobs with clear start/end dates, at least six months each, with less than four weeks between jobs. This approach focuses on sustained work—capturing people with stable jobs instead of counting very brief stints or summer work.
But there are some limitations:
Despite these limitations, the overall patterns are clear—and match what we see on the ground every day.
As automation, remote work, and economic change shape the UK workforce, job switching will remain a fact of life. For policymakers, businesses, and people themselves, the key challenge will be managing this movement to support growth and well-being.
Entry-level sectors must give workers real opportunities for growth and stability. Specialist careers need strong, ongoing investment in new talent.
At EWS, we see first-hand how tailored workforce solutions can address both rapid churn and sector-specific shortages. By understanding where the movement happens—and why—we help businesses recruit smarter and build teams ready for whatever comes next.
The analysis quoted through this article uses data from a leading global job matching platform. With hundreds of millions of unique visitors each month, its insights are based on large volumes of real-world career move data. This reach, along with rigorous methodology, gives employers and policymakers confidence in the trends highlighted.
The split landscape in UK job switching is a challenge, but also an opportunity. Workers in entry-level roles are flexible and eager to progress, while specialists are loyal to their fields but must adapt as skills change. Employers that understand these dynamics can keep recruitment costs down, nurture internal talent, and support a workforce ready for the future.
If you are managing recruitment, growth, or workforce planning, we invite you to see how EWS Limited’s guidance and enterprise solutions can help you hire with confidence—whether your goal is stability, flexibility, or long-term career development. Reach out or explore our resources to see how we connect the dots for your growth.
Job switching in the UK describes when a worker leaves their current job to start a new one. This can mean moving to a different employer within the same occupation, or changing to a new field entirely.
People leave jobs for many reasons, including better pay, career progression, work-life balance, improved conditions, or a desire for a new career. In entry-level roles, limited advancement options and low pay often drive workers to seek new opportunities in other sectors.
Switching jobs can offer higher wages, new experiences, or better career prospects. However, those in specialist roles may find greater rewards by staying and building on their existing skills. The decision depends on personal goals, sector dynamics, and market demand.
Strong job switching supports economic adjustment by helping workers move to growing sectors and adapt to change. However, high turnover increases recruitment costs for businesses and can slow down hiring if specialist skills are scarce.
Younger workers and those in entry-level sectors like hospitality, retail, and food service are most likely to switch jobs and occupations. Workers in specialist fields such as healthcare, engineering, and IT are more likely to stay within their profession, even if they change employers.
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