--- title: 'The Great Stay: Why Switching Jobs No Longer Pays Off in 2025' description: Job switching isn't as lucrative as before. Discover why staying put and overemployment are trending in today's labor market. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 501 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Katherine Peach role: Associate Editor url: https://money.com/author/katherine-peach/ bio: Katherine Peach is an associate editor with a focus on news and email at Money. She didn’t always intend to write about money. She’s a classically trained pianist who dreamed of becoming an archaeologist. However, in 2007 Katherine began working in financial publishing as an editor for Agora Inc. (Apparently, unearthing ideas about improving your personal finances isn’t such a bad career alternative!) Katherine’s writing and editing work has been featured in Investing Daily, Clever, Investor Junkie, The Palm Beach Letter, Truth & Plenty, Independence Monthly, NICHE, AmericanStyle, AntiqueWeek, Millennial Money, Money Done Right, TheStreet, Sure Dividend and many others. Katherine holds a Bachelor of Arts in Ancient Studies with concentrations in Archaeology and Ancient Languages and a minor in Literature from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. education: University of Maryland, Baltimore County at_money_since: 2025 articles: 14 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Federal Reserve Rate Cuts - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes published: '2025-03-18T20:37:30.000Z' modified: '2025-03-18T20:37:30.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - News word_count: 629 canonical: https://money.com/switching-jobs-doesnt-pay-off-anymore/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Mirror image of a man working at a desk, in opposite positions](https://img.money.com/2025/03/News-Payoff-Job-Switching1.jpg) Switching jobs is no longer the moneymaking career move it once was. In February, annual wage growth for people who switched jobs actually fell behind those who stayed in their current roles, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s [wage growth tracker](https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker). Job switchers saw their wages go up by 4.2%, while wages for so-called job stayers jumped 4.4%. “This advantage has vanished,” Sofia Baig, an economist at Morning Consult, says in an email. The trend marks the first time job stayers beat job switchers in terms of wage growth since 2018. And it’s a stark reversal from the tight labor market workers experienced during the pandemic. ## Expand your network and your career with the help of a Job Search Site ### Job Search Sites allow you to put your resume out there for tons of companies and potential employers to see. Click your state to begin networking today! [Get Started](https://money.com/pr/u4fa93008842?ap_referrer=%2Fswitching-jobs-doesnt-pay-off-anymore%2F) Amid the labor shortage in 2022, for instance, job openings were plentiful and employers were paying a premium. Wages spiked 8.5% that July — the highest reading since the Atlanta Fed began tracking wage data in 1997. Job stayers saw a handsome earnings bump too that month, with wage growth clocking in at an abnormally high 5.9%. The picture is much different today. Workers now have “fewer opportunities to switch jobs and to realize wage gains,” Bill Congdon, labor economist and senior fellow at the Urban Institute, says in an email. With [interest rates being held high](https://money.com/will-federal-reserve-hike-interest-rates/) to keep a lid on inflation, the labor market has notably cooled. Baig notes that hiring activity is down to levels we haven’t seen in over a decade — but layoffs, at least, are not widespread. Now staying put has become the more lucrative choice for workers — a predicament some are beginning to call “[the great stay](https://www.linkedin.com/in/callie-cox-553a1a28/recent-activity/all/).” However, with inflation remaining stubbornly high, hanging on to one current job is simply not enough for many Americans to make ends meet. ## Are job hoppers becoming job hoarders? As switching jobs becomes less lucrative, we’re beginning to see a surge in Americans who are taking on multiple jobs. In February, the Labor Department reported that [more than 9 million people](https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea39.htm) held at least two jobs, the largest number of multiple jobholders on record and a 7.4% increase from the year prior. Women and workers aged 20 to 24 are more likely to hold multiple jobs than other groups. Congdon notes that while the sheer number is increasing, the share of workers with multiple jobs has previously registered higher than it did in February. Still, the overemployment trend is having a moment. For some workers, it's a necessity. For others, it's an opportunity to cash in. In the subreddit [r/overemployed](https://www.reddit.com/r/overemployed/), members often document how they juggle multiple (mostly remote) jobs at the same time. The online forum was created in 2021 and has already garnered more than 400,000 members. Similarly, on both [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jtodonnell_independentcontractor-activity-7197061528393502721-0Sjj?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAABeThJsB3V1dhYttRF25ki5m2f4fri9-CFc) and [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2paDGN3/), influencers and career coaches alike are openly sharing advice on working multiple remote jobs at once and not getting caught. According to a [recent report](https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2025/mar/beyond-9-5-decoding-overemployment-trend) from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, overemployment is becoming increasingly popular among college-educated workers in particular. The analysis found that people with multiple jobs do tend to make more money but just barely — out-earning single job workers by only $900 a year. “This behavior might be attributed to a desire to keep pace with recent inflation,” the researchers wrote. For Baig, with Morning Consult, all of this points to a slowing labor market. She says that people with multiple jobs probably couldn’t get the hours or wage they wanted with the first one. “So they are working multiple jobs in order to make an acceptable wage,” she says. “I’m sure they would rather be working one job that paid what they wanted.” ## ZipRecruiter actively helps connect people to their next great opportunity ### Apply to jobs anytime, anywhere and get notified instantly when your application is reviewed. Click below to start searching for your new job today! [Get Started](https://money.com/pr/t317b961d1c1?ap_referrer=%2Fswitching-jobs-doesnt-pay-off-anymore%2F) ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/27719/medium_9633d36b-648e-4420-a12e-40662257d5b5.jpg) Find a great job match with ZipRecruiter [Get Started](https://money.com/pr/qca8f5a853ec?ap_referrer=%2Fswitching-jobs-doesnt-pay-off-anymore%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/switching-jobs-doesnt-pay-off-anymore/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Career Advice", "item": "https://money.com/career-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Jobs", "item": "https://money.com/jobs/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Great Stay: Why Switching Jobs No Longer Pays Off in 2025" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/switching-jobs-doesnt-pay-off-anymore/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/switching-jobs-doesnt-pay-off-anymore/", "name": "The Great Stay: Why Switching Jobs No Longer Pays Off in 2025", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2025-03-18T20:37:30.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/switching-jobs-doesnt-pay-off-anymore/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/switching-jobs-doesnt-pay-off-anymore/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2025-03-18T20:37:30.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "The Great Stay: Why Switching Jobs No Longer Pays Off in 2025", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2025/03/News-Payoff-Job-Switching1.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Payoff-Job-Switching" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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