A woman using a laptop on a dining room table set up as a remote office to work from home on March 4, 2020. Joe Giddens/PA Wire
Economic uncertainty and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) are key reasons Australians are choosing to stay in their current jobs, according to a study commissioned by professional networking platform LinkedIn.
Of the 2,000 Australian adults surveyed by Censuswide, 51 percent said they intended to look for a new job in 2026, down from 59 percent in 2025.
LinkedIn career expert Brendan Wong said these factors were driving what he described as a “job-hugging” trend.
“Now, because of the way the job market is, people prefer stability, so they’re retaining their jobs, not because they particularly like them,” he told AAP.
“It’s definitely replaced what we saw a year or two ago when there was quiet-quitting.”
Quiet quitting refers to employees doing only the minimum required work, without going above and beyond their job duties.
Government figures show Australia’s job market has cooled, even though the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.3 percent.
In November, the number of full-time jobs fell by 57,000, while an increase in part-time work only partly made up for the loss.
This helps explain why many workers are choosing to stay in their current roles rather than look for new jobs.
