'Employers shouldn't confuse low mobility with low dissatisfaction'
Job mobility in Australia is on a decline, but an expert warns that this is not a sign that employees are contented in their current work.
The latest findings from the Hays Salary Guide FY26/27 showed that just 20% of Australian professionals transferred to a new employer in the past 12 months, while 38% are not planning to move jobs in the next 12 months.
The data is aligned with recent reports suggesting that Australians are job hugging, with the latest national job mobility data declining to 7.7% in the year ending February 2025.
But beneath the surface of that stability, a quiet crisis is building, according to the report, which is the largest review of salaries and workforce trends in ANZ.
The report revealed that just over half of workers (53%) feel satisfied or very satisfied in their roles, and only 42% say the same about their pay.
"Employers shouldn't confuse low mobility with low dissatisfaction. Only one in five changed jobs last year, yet one in three say there's no clear promotion structure, and pay growth is only just tracking inflation," said Matthew Dickason, CEO of Hays APAC, in a statement.
"The conditions for a retention problem are building underneath stable turnover numbers."
Wages as a driver of discontent
A central driver of that discontent is wages, with the average salary increases sitting at approximately four per cent, in line with inflation.
Despite this, half of Australian professionals still feel underpaid.
The most common causes for pay rises were cost-of-living pressures (32%) and company-wide adjustments (25%), rather than promotions (18%) or new job offers (11%). Around 42% of employees said they received little to no meaningful increase over the past year.
The pay squeeze is hitting lower-income earners hardest. Among professionals earning less than A$79,000, 62% reported little to no meaningful salary growth, compared to 36% of those earning above A$80,000.
Lack of career progression persists
The lack of career progression is also pushing workers toward the door.
Among those considering leaving their current employer, 36% cited a lack of future opportunities and 33% pointed to unclear promotion pathways.
Employees without defined career paths report lower satisfaction (42%) and are more likely to be actively job-hunting (36%).
Dickason described the workforce mood in stark terms.
"Workers are staying put out of caution, not contentment. Progression pathways remain unclear, pay is largely stagnant in real terms, and underlying dissatisfaction is building quietly," he said.
On the question of retention, relationships and job security remain the top reasons workers stay, as cited by 42% and 34% of respondents, respectively.
However, salary and benefits (43%) and lack of future opportunities (36%) remain the primary reasons for leaving, highlighting the limits of non-financial incentives.
"This is a crucial moment for employers to pause, understand the concerns of their teams, and address these underlying issues before they translate into future turnover," Dickason said.
