Career change on hold as pandemic prompts workers to stay put in job

• Workers retrenched, rather than leaving jobs of their own accord in 2020.
• Number of retrenched workers rose by 60% in 2020.
• Proportion of workers voluntarily changing jobs fell from 26% in 2019 to 21.7% in
  2020.

Only one in five workers voluntarily sought to change jobs at the height of the pandemic in
2020, compared to one in four the previous year.

The most common reason why employees left their job in 2020 was due to being retrenched,
rather than leaving of their own accord, with data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics
showing a 60% increase in retrenchments during the height of the pandemic.

The data indicates that workers were holding onto the job they had during the pandemic, as
they sought to weather the impact of the economic downturn.

There is good news for workers, with the V-shaped economic recovery fuelling jobs growth
and pushing job vacancies in Australia to record highs.

However, it is worth noting that more than half of the gains in the labour market have been
part-time and flexible work positions.