Pedestrians make their way early morning in the hallway of the Grand Central terminal in New York on February 29, 2024.
Charly Triballeau | AFP | Getty Images
More than 4 in 10 people — or 43% — are trying to change their career fields this year, according to a new report by online employment platform FlexJobs.
Concern around possible layoffs, the role of artificial intelligence and work-life balance are all factors driving people to want to move to a new profession, said Keith Spencer, career expert at FlexJobs.
The survey, conducted in early February, included over 4,000 U.S. respondents.
But changing careers can feel daunting, and data show that most people are still reluctant to leave their current employers.
“Many people know they want to leave their current job, but haven’t fully defined the role they want or how their existing skills translate to a new field,” Spencer said. “Without that understanding, it’s easy to lose confidence and motivation.”
‘The collapse of linear career paths’
The old formula for a successful career — “pick a track, work hard and follow it upward” — isn’t working for many people anymore, said executive coach Megan Hellerer.
“The advent of AI has accelerated the collapse of linear career paths,” Hellerer said. “When certainty and safety disappear, people start asking deeper questions: If the ladder isn’t secure, do I even want to be climbing it?”
That reflection is spurring people to want to move toward more creative and complex roles, which AI is less able to replicate, said Erik Brynjolfsson, an economics professor at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
“AI is changing the ‘recipe’ of most jobs, and many workers are proactively looking for roles where they can better leverage their unique human strengths,” Brynjolfsson said.
Demand for white-collar skills ‘uncertain’
Although many people may want to change their careers, few are taking the plunge. Joseph Fuller, a professor at Harvard Business School, said the quit rate — government data that measures the number of people who have voluntarily left their jobs in a given month — was 2% in December, compared to 3% in Nov. 2021 during the so-called great resignation.
Fuller said AI and economic uncertainty are to blame for workers’ reluctance to leave, a trend some experts have dubbed “job hugging” or “the great stay.”
“Historically, upper-income people were the most comfortable quitting because they usually had material savings [and] robust qualifications,” Fuller said; however, “generative AI is the first technology whose impact goes up with income.”
“The demand for white-collar skills is uncertain,” he added.
First step to change careers: a ‘curiosity campaign’
Those who want to change careers but are anxious about the next steps should put their resumes aside for now, Hellerer said. To begin, she encourages people to do a “curiosity campaign.”
“Forget trying to find your purpose — that question is too big and too paralyzing,” she said. “Instead, follow your curiosity. Notice what you’d read about for free, what problems you find yourself drawn to.”
AI is a double-edged sword, she said.
“It’s creating real anxiety about job security, which is pushing people to reconsider their paths,” she said, but it’s also “a strange gift — it’s stripping away the ‘safe’ choices and forcing people to ask what is the work that is uniquely well-suited for them.”
Rather than trying to plan too far ahead, people should “take an experimental approach,” she said: “Take a class, have a conversation with someone in a field you’re curious about, read a book on a topic that’s been nagging at you.”
“Career change doesn’t have to be dramatic,” Hellerer added. “It often begins with small, low-risk experiments. The goal isn’t certainty, it’s momentum.”