More Than Half of UK Workers Plan to Job Hunt

Robert Half’s UK arm reports that 53% of British professionals plan to search for a new role, or have already started, before the end of the year, according to a survey of 1,000 UK workers the recruiter published this week. Thirty five percent said they intend to begin a search soon and 18% are already actively looking. Among people considering a move, the leading reasons were a better work life balance or lighter workload (38%), limited advancement opportunities (35%), and stronger benefits (34%); 29% said they simply feel underpaid.

For HR teams, the number that should reshape retention planning is not the headline figure, it is what predicts staying instead of leaving. Forty nine percent of workers who are not job hunting said they feel fulfilled in their current role, and the same share cited workplace flexibility as their reason to stay. Job security also carries outsized weight: 92% called it extremely or very important to their career decisions, a heavier factor than pay in a market employers have spent two years treating as a compensation problem.

“The labour market remains active, but professionals are becoming increasingly selective about the opportunities they pursue,” said Matt Weston, senior managing director, UK and Ireland, at Robert Half. That selectivity is the insight retention teams are missing: a flat pay year does not automatically trigger an exit if career progression, flexibility, and a credible sense of job security are visibly on offer. Employers reading this survey purely as a pay problem will fix the wrong variable.

Source: Robert Half UK