Millennials Job-Hopping Myth Debunked

As a Millennial, I have heard a lot of "job-hopping" rumors about my generation. Odds are, you heard the stories too; "Millennials only take jobs until they can drop [said position] for the next job that comes along." However, studies show that this might be completely inaccurate! Looking at the job retention rates between Millennials vs. Gen Xers, the numbers are roughly the same. Who knew?

The industry has had had the chance to look at the data on jobs by the U.S. Department of Labor and can compare the retention rate between millennials and Gen Xers at the same stage of life. According to the data, Millennials aren’t job-hopping anymore, or less than those generations before us did. 

What this Labor study shows us is that the retention rate in companies, has been dropping since the 80's. There are a couple of causes for the decline in retention. However, it helps to look at how (to put it in medical terms) to stop the "bleeding" before to understand why you got cut.

You do not need an MBA to recognize that better retention means lower staffing costs. The conventional thought process is that when a company loses an employee, the cost is 150% to replace that employee. For example, if a company fires someone who makes 35,000 a year the total loss, in looking for a new employee and training that employee, comes out to almost 54,000 dollars. Not to mention the "unknown" loss of when a company doesn't handle the firing correctly there is a hit to the cultural ecosystem and loss in productiveness. 

 However consider this from the Labor study: retention rates aren't all bad. Some employers are doing better than others at keeping employees for a longer about of time. Government workers have a higher employee retention rate than their counterparts in the private sector. The retention increase is most likely because of government jobs, in some ways, are different in the way it holds itself to higher standards where the treatment of employees is concerned. There are systems in place for fairer wages, retirement benefits and pensions and, of course, health care provided as a matter of course.

 I think if you are a manager in the private sector it is more important to think about setting yourself apart in the way your company looks at employees. Having a fair and clear system for compensation combined with excellent benefits is an excellent way to prevent staff from leaving.