Why Do People Change Careers?

Choose a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.

Most of us aspire to this mantra when choosing our future careers. However, it’s a sad fact that almost half of the UK workforce are not happy with their current career path, and this stems from a number of reasons. From lack of – or misinformed – careers advice at school to an ever-changing jobs landscape that can cause confusion about what jobs are available, this has led to many people not loving the jobs that they do. And this means people want to change. Unfortunately, many feel that they are unable to do so for financial, personal and family reasons. Change, as we all know, is often quite difficult.

This worryingly high percentage of an unhappy workforce has dire consequences for the nation, including lower productivity and output. It also means that the employee churn rate is high – and this lack of commitment towards the companies that employ them poses a problem in terms of the investment made towards training and retaining staff.

Overall, we are witnessing a career landscape that is evolving into something more fluid and diverse with an increasing number of job titles to claim as yours. But without the proper guidance or channels to discover what these job options and career paths are – and indeed one that can keep up with the ever-changing times – then we will be none the wiser nor better off. Indeed, it’s time for an overhaul of our whole approach to careers education if we want a happy and more productive workforce.

Take a look at these statistics to see why people choose to change or remain in their current jobs.

Careers: Should I Stay Or Should I Go? 210623 by Eva Gross