Study Finds Most People Ready to Jump Ship

When the economy turns around–which could take a lot longer than anyone imagined–will you stay at your current job, or will you gladly try and get out as fast as possible?

A study from Adecco Group appears to be showing that most people want a new gig and more money, and have no sense of loyalty at all. Here are some of key points from Adecco’s Workplace Insights survey done in June:

“Resignations- More than half (54%) of employed Americans report that they are likely to look for new jobs once the economy turns around. Be ready for a lot of suspiciously long lunch breaks, and the occasional dentist appointment that requires a suit and tie.Goodbye, Generation Y: Your youngest employees (who bring a lot of new ideas and skills to the table), are knocking on your competitor’s door. 71% of those between 18-29 are likely to look for new jobs once the upturn begins.Pay cuts- More than half (55%) of employees who are willing to accept a pay cut to keep their job, will accept a 10% salary decrease or more. Before you get too excited about trimming salaries to cut costs, remember that a pay cut can harm an individual employee’s financial situation, thus hastening a job search.Generation Y won’t budge: Only 9% (less than 1 in 10) of Generation Y is willing to accept a pay cut to keep their jobs compared to 1 in 5 workers from the other generations (Baby Boomers, Gen X, Silent)Retirement plans: Almost half (44%) of employees over the age of 60 have been forced to delay their retirement plans“

Most companies cannot be overly concerned about retention, but when most workers are dealing with massive layoffs, forced furloughs, depleted benefits and every other creative cost-cutting initiative imaginable, suffering workers look to the future for career growth–with many waiting for better opportunities than the limited ones now.

Another finding from the study is that people are not feeling great about the economy at all, what little good news was happening on Wall Street in early June notwithstanding.

Even that seems to be cooling off a little bit.