If you’re looking to rapidly grow income and accelerate your career, job hopping boosts your career, according to a new study. Traditionally, American workers have stayed in dead-end careers and jobs they hate, partly because of job security. In the past, recruiters have discouraged workers from job-hopping because it was looked upon as unstable and irresponsible. But the tides are changing. With workplace worry and anxiety reaching an all-time high, Gallup reports that 48% of U.S. employees are seeking new roles.

Advantages Of Frequently Switching Jobs

With more workers looking for both rapid income growth and career mobility, job hopping is emerging as a powerful strategy for people to take control of their financial futures. A new study from SideHustles.com reports that 47% of full-time employees believe taking the leap is more financially profitable than staying neatly tucked inside their comfort zones.

The company surveyed 1,003 full-time employees to explore their job-hopping habits, salary expectations and motivations. The findings reveal that job hopping, once seen as risky, is now a rapid and reliable way for workers to boost both income and accelerate career growth.

The study reveals that tech employees and Gen Zers are the most likely to identify as job hoppers. Job hoppers have switched between one and three or more times in the last three years. On average, job hoppers (35%) received two times as many raises than tenured employees (18%).

Other key findings from the survey include:

• Job hoppers saw a 35% salary increase over the last three years, nearly double that of tenured employees.
• 64% of job hoppers believe switching jobs accelerates their career progression.
• 30% of job hoppers received four or more raises in the last three years, compared to just nine percent of tenured employees.
• 12% of full-time employees consider themselves job hoppers.
• 18% of full-time employees plan to job hop in the next year, 20% plan to within the next two years and 30% plan to switch within the next three to five years.
• 27% of Gen Zers plan to job hop within the next year.

I spoke with Mark Slack, career expert at SideHustles.com, and he told me that job hoppers, reaping the benefits of a once-taboo practice, is a fascinating case of how generational shifts have redefined career norms. “What was once seen as instability is now viewed as adaptability and ambition,” Slack explains, “reflecting how younger generations prioritize growth and flexibility over loyalty to a single employer.”

He went on to mention how modern hiring managers have far different expectations for how long an employee ‘should’ stay in a company than they did in the past, especially in the tech sector. Slack suggests that it’s likely they themselves have hopped jobs to get out of toxic workplaces and earn raises.

How To Make Job Hopping Work In Your Favor

Earlier this year, I wrote a piece for Forbes.com on how to turn job hopping into a powerful career strategy and spoke with Eva Chan, career expert at Resume Genius. She told me that job-hopping has become a defining feature of modern career paths. When conducted in a strategic way, Chan insists that job-hopping can be a benefit for job seekers. She advises that job hoppers opt for strategic job changes that enhance their career paths, not just their next paycheck.

Chan, along with other industry-leading experts five key strategies that job hoppers can employ to make informed career-related decisions:

1. Conduct a career assessment. Their consensus is that understanding your motivations and reflecting on your career choices is crucial before making any changes.
2. Strategically time your job transitions. Understanding the timing and reasoning behind job transitions is critical. To navigate job changes wisely, they recommend focusing on long-term career advancement, current market conditions and the ability to articulate your career moves as steps toward professional growth.
3. Be tactful when framing your job-hopping experiences. Maintaining transparency, while being tactful throughout your job search, is key to showcasing integrity and distinguishing yourself as a candidate who won’t bolt at the next opportunity. While it’s important to be honest about your job history, the experts recommend focusing on sharing the reasons for your moves that reflect positively on your professional growth and decision-making process.
4. Highlight your adaptability to employers. Your capacity to manage transitions and glean insights from various experiences showcases adaptability—a sought-after-trait that employers highly value.
5. Take note of how different companies view job-hopping. While more accepted today, job-hopping still presents challenges, experts say. According to Resume Genius’s 2024 Hiring Trends Survey, one out of two hiring managers consider frequent job changes a concern.

A Final Word On Hopping

To assess a company’s stance on job-hopping, experts recommend researching its industry norms, especially in sectors like tech where flexibility is often valued. They further propose that you examine job postings, the company’s digital footprint, and leadership backgrounds for signs of openness to diverse career paths.

“If you’re astute enough to see opportunities as they arise, seize them,” Slack concludes. “You can always let your current employer know the reason you’d be leaving so soon. And they may open their wallets to keep you in place. Sure, there’s a chance some hiring managers may dislike your job-hopping resume. But our stats show that it’s worth the risk.”