Over a million employed people changed employer, business in the year to February 2026
Just over a million Australians changed jobs in the year to February 2026, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), as the country's job mobility rate declined for another year.
The latest ABS data showed that Australia logged a 7.2% mobility rate in 2026, down from the 7.7% recorded a year ago.
"Just over 1.0 million employed people (or 7.2%) changed their employer or business in the year to February 2026," said Robert Long, ABS head of labour statistics, in a statement.
"While this decreasing job mobility is a continuation of a long-term trend since the 1970s, there have been some notable peaks in job mobility over this period. These have generally occurred around times of economic uncertainty, such as leading into the recessions in the early 1980s and early 1990s, and during the COVID-19 pandemic."
The findings reflect the ongoing "job hugging" trend that has been recorded in workplaces as of late, where employees are choosing to remain with their current employer in the wake of economic uncertainty and tight competition in the job market.
Australia's recorded job mobility
ABS data showed younger workers were generally "more mobile" than older workers, with employees aged between 15 and 24 years old posting a 12.0% job mobility rate, slightly higher than last year's 11.5%.
Workers aged between 25 and 44 years, however, recorded a lower job mobility rate with 8.1%. The decline continued for older workers, with those aged between 45 and 64 years posting a 4.6% job mobility rate, and those aged 65 and over logging a 1.2% job mobility rate.
By gender, job mobility was higher for men with 7.4%, compared with women's 7.1%. Women also posted a bigger decline in job mobility with 0.8 percentage points, while men only saw a decrease of 0.2 percentage points.
By location, the Northern Territory reported the highest job mobility rate with 11.1%, followed by Queensland ([8.2%]) and South Australia (8.2%). Other states and territories posted:
- Western Australia (7.3%)
- Tasmania (7.3%)
- Australian Capital Territory (7.2%)
- Victoria (6.9%)
- New South Wales (6.5%)
Reasons for leaving for work
Meanwhile, the report also revealed that 2.1 million people left or lost their job in the past 12 months, similar to the numbers posted in the year to February 2025.
Nearly a quarter (24.6%) of those who left their current job said they wanted to "get a better job or just wanted a change."
Another 12.5%, or around 257,900, said they were retrenched, according to the findings. The country's retrenchment rate was 1.8%, down 0.1 percentage points from the year ending February 2025.
This is slightly higher than the record-low retrenchment rate of 1.3% in February 2023, while significantly below the record-high 7.2% posted in February 1991.
