Half of Australia’s workforce may consider changing jobs next year

28% of Australia’s workers agree they will consider changing organisations within the next 12 months, while another 23% neither agree nor disagree, or can’t say.  Less than half the 11 million employed Australians 14+ (49%) say they aren’t considering changing employer, workforce data from Roy Morgan Research shows.

This number of employees considering changing organisation far exceeds the number who are dissatisfied (9%) or unsure (16%). 3 in 4 employees say they are satisfied.

In the year to June 2014, Roy Morgan Research surveyed over 8000 full- or part-time Australian workers (14+) about their jobs, covering everything from their income and industry, satisfaction with job recognition and opportunities, rating of current pay and job security, the quality of their employers’ management, training and customer service, and their job-seeking intentions over the coming year.

Naturally, dissatisfied employees are much more likely to be considering changing organisation. But of the 75% of workers who say they are satisfied, around 1 in 5 are considering switching company. 

Source:  Roy Morgan Single Source, July 2013 – June 2014, sample = 8180 Australians 14+ in paid employment.

Overall, 1.58 million employees are satisfied with their current job but nevertheless considering moving elsewhere within the next year. This represents a pool of job-seekers around twice as large as those who are both dissatisfied and thinking of leaving (756,000).

Rates of both dissatisfaction and consideration of changing organisation vary greatly across different industries. Australians working in Mining are the most likely to be dissatisfied and the second most likely to be contemplating a change of organisation. Manufacturing workers are also in the Top 5 for both dissatisfaction and new job consideration.

However although Public Administration and Defence employees have the second highest rate of dissatisfaction behind Mining, they are actually the most likely to say they’ll be staying within their current organisation. 

Conversely, although only around 1 in 25 workers in Electricity, Gas and Water are dissatisfied, over seven times as many are considering changing jobs.

Often younger and more flexible in their employment, almost 40% of the Retail workforce is considering looking for a new job, despite a relatively low rate of dissatisfaction.

Michele Levine - CEO, Roy Morgan Research, says:

“At a time when companies are looking to downsize, delay or restructure, retaining the right talent within your organisation has never been more important. Yet more than a quarter of all employees are currently considering changing jobs and another 1 in 5 aren’t sure.

“To deal with high levels of churn, HR and Recruitment companies need to be able to understand their corporate clients’ goals and directions and to operate more as strategic partners when it comes to sourcing and retaining the best staff, as well as developing outplacement programmes as a result of redundancies.

“It’s therefore vital for these firms to understand the people making the hiring decisions in businesses, whether HR personnel, executives and ground-level team managers. So as well as monitoring employment trends and employees’ satisfaction levels and job-seeking intentions, Roy Morgan Research collects extensive data from the people making the staffing decisions within all types and sizes of businesses.  Combining employee and employer data provides a two-sided perspective on workforce trends than can enable recruiters to more effectively understand and target both groups.” 

To discuss how to understand and reach Australians who are satisfied or dissatisfied with their job and considering or seeking a new job, or the business decision-makers responsible for staffing, please contact: