Half of UK working population think about changing jobs before the end of the year

According to a new survey conducted by Aon Consulting across European countries, nearly half of the working population (47%) plans on moving jobs before the end of the year. This will be translated in a massive surge in candidates for recruitment services agencies.

According to Peter Abelskamp, executive director of health and benefits for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Aon, the trend is provoked by a high number of workers who have become unhappy due to the drastic actions taken during the turmoil.

As mentioned on Personnel Today, the survey has raised concerns about the fact that employees’ retention plans need to be improved so they don't leave their employers behind when the jobs market is improving due to a better economic climate.

Mr Abelskamp says that the possibility to lose key personnel to competitors is "definitely very real."
"This could seriously undermine an organisation's competitive position once the recovery takes hold," he said. "If you consider an employee to be valuable, the chances are that your competitors will too."
The survey also mentions that only the Irish workforce expressed more desire to change jobs (49.4%) than the British, with most European employees happy in their works. Comes then Norway, (36.4%). In other countries job satisfaction was generally high and particularly in the Netherlands and Belgium where less than a fifth of the surveyed population (17.4%) and (17.5%) revealed they were thinking about changing jobs this year.

In the United Kingdom, the research revealed that 53% of 18-24 year olds said they would seek a change by the end of the year. And when it comes to industry sector, more than half of those in engineering expect to look for new jobs by the end of the year.