Amid a difficult job market, many have resorted to “job hugging,” or “holding onto their jobs for dear life” even if they aren’t progressing in their careers or lack motivation, said consulting firm Korn Ferry. The lack of higher career aspirations is a result of the poor job market that has made people uncertain about their employment futures.
Background
It is no secret that the job market has not been promising recently. The revised data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the U.S. job market was “much weaker in 2024 and early this year than originally reported, adding to concerns about the health of the nation’s economy,” said The Associated Press. “Employers added 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year that ended in March 2025.”
Overall, the “economy has been in a low-hire, low-fire equilibrium,” said The Atlantic. This has extended to almost all sectors aside from health care. The “amount of time a worker has spent looking for a job has climbed to an average of 10 weeks, meaning that Americans are spending two weeks longer on the job market than they were a few years ago.” Many are unable to find jobs altogether.
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In a job market without many new jobs or potential for upward mobility, job hugging naturally occurs. Given the “activity that happened post-Covid and then some of these constant layoffs, people are waiting and sitting in seats and hoping that they have more stability,” said Stacy DeCesaro, a managing consultant at Korn Ferry, to Fortune. A July 2025 report found that a majority of employees plan to remain in their current jobs for at least the next six months. This trend aligns with quiet quitting and quiet vacationing, as many are not necessarily engaged in their jobs and are more concerned about not having one. “They don’t seem happy, they don’t give 100% — and they don’t quit,” said The Wall Street Journal.
However, job hugging does not just apply to those who are only trying to keep a job. “The phrase ‘job hugging’ just kind of coined itself, because of the reluctance of especially top performers to leave where they’re currently at,” DeCesaro said to Insider. In many cases, workers who have outgrown their current roles are “sitting in the wrong seat at this time in their careers and clinging to it because of market fear,” said Forbes.
The reaction
“The process of getting a job has become a late-capitalist nightmare,” said The Atlantic. This has led many people to feel that they must remain in their current jobs and not seek out new opportunities. “When people were moving during the Great Resignation, that allowed others to get promoted, perhaps ahead of schedule and have a stretch job,” said Alan Guarino, the vice chairman of Korn Ferry, to the Journal. “Now people can’t move up and they potentially get demotivated because of the lack of opportunity.”
This can be bad for both employers and employees as “go-getters hankering for promotions might lose out if mediocre co-workers refuse to vacate the next rung on the corporate ladder,” said the Journal. There is also less room for new grads to be hired. However, it could also be an opportunity. “Great teammates are not leaving for external jobs every couple years," said Korn Ferry, “which means firms can develop those talents and create more internal career paths.”
