Australia's jobs mobility by the numbers

On the surface, Australia’s labour market still looks solid. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.3% in June 2025, up from 4.1% in May (ABS, 2025). Job growth has slowed, with only 20,000 positions added last month. Headline figures point to a softening but still stable labour market.

However, another dataset, tells a more layered story. The ABS has just released its annual Job Mobility statistics for the year ending February 2025. At 7.7%, the national job mobility rate has fallen to its second-lowest level since 1972. Put simply, fewer people are changing jobs than at almost any time in the past 50 years.

But that’s not the most important insight. Beneath the headline rate are six key signals, each offering a sharper, view of how Australia’s workforce is behaving. It’s not just about how many people are moving, but who is moving, where and why.

Job losses are holding steady, but retrenchment is rising again

In the year to February 2025, 2.1 million people left or lost a job, which is similar to the previous year. But within that total, retrenchments rose to 268,000 people. This is up from a record low in 2023 and now accounting for 12% of all job exits.

• Retrenchment rates rose to 1.9%, up from 1.7% in 2024, but remains well below the 2.9% recorded in 2015
• Men were more likely to be retrenched (14.5% vs 10.5% for women)
• The most common reason for leaving a job was to find a better one (25.0%), but this has dropped from 33.1% just three years ago
• Family-related exits were far more common among women (13.9%) than men (4.2%)

While overall job loss volumes remain stable, the rising share of involuntary exits signals a softening in parts of the labour market.  

Most job changers aren’t actually changing careers

Job movement remains active, but most people stay within their occupation group. 1.1 million Australians changed employers last year, with 62%, or 686,000 people, remaining in the same major occupation group.

• Professionals made up the largest share of movers (24%) and had the highest rate of staying, 82% remained in the same occupation
• Sales workers were the most likely to shift occupations, with 51% remaining in the same group
• Mobility rates also fell for clerical workers (from 8.3% to 6.4%). And declined for several other groups, including labourers, tradespeople, and managers

This highlights the tendency for most job changers to remain within their area of expertise, with cross-occupational movement relatively limited.

The ‘Short Tenure’ is now the norm

Forget long tenure. Today’s workforce is short cycled.

• 16.8% of workers have been in their current job less than 1 year. This trend is consistent when compared with previous years.
• The proportion of working tenure of 1-4 years has increased from 33.9% in 2022 to 40.3% currently. This suggests an emerging shift in workforce behaviour with employees moving more frequently between roles, even if not between careers
• Only 43.0% have stayed in the same job more than 5 years. This has reduced by 2 percentage points compared to 2022 (45.0%)

Youth turnover Is distorting the market

• Young workers (aged 15–24) continue to drive an outsized share of job movement.
• They make up just 15.0% of the total workforce
• But they account for 40.0% of all new hires
• Their job mobility rate is 11.5%, which is more than twice the rate for workers aged 45 to 64 (4.9%) and much lower than the 20.6% recorded in 1994.

This trend typically reflects a stage of career exploration. With younger workers more likely to move between roles as they transition from study, gain experience, and establish their careers.

Sectoral mobility is uneven  

Job mobility is not falling evenly across industries.

• Mining dropped from 11.2% (in 2024) to 7.7%
• Media and telecoms fell from 11.7% to 7.5%
• Wholesale trade saw the sharpest decline from 7.7% to 4.3%
• Meanwhile, ‘Other Services’ jumped from 6.4% to 9.8%

This shows that the overall job mobility rate hides important differences between industries.  

Final Thought

Unemployment ticking up to 4.3% may seem like a mild shift. But Jobs Mobility data provides more colour to the employment story. Australia’s workforce is now younger, more short-tenured but yet less mobile across occupations than in past decades.

Beneath the surface, the labour market is showing signs of increased segmentation. With a smaller share of workers accounting for most job movement. A trend supported by Jobs and Skills Australia, which found that between 83% and 92% of workers remained in the same occupation from 2011 to 2021. (Reference: Jobs and Skills Australia, 2024).

While these tenure patterns may appear to reflect greater job stability, they could also point to reduced mobility. This could be due to personal constraints, limited opportunities or a tighter job market. This raises important questions about the flexibility and adaptability of the current workforce.

References:

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2025, Job Mobility Survey, ABS. Accessible here: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/jobs/job-mobility/feb-2025#key-statistics

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2025, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, ABS, Accessible here:https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/jun-2025

Jobs and Skills Australia (2024). Data on Occupation Mobility: Unpacking Workers’ Movements, Australian Government.

Accessible here https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/download/19478/data-occupation-mobility-unpacking-workers-movements/2223/data-occupation-mobility-unpacking-workers-movements/pdf

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