How to Feel Less ‘Stuck’ in Your Job
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Here's your money briefing for Tuesday, July 9th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. For years, a lot of workers were able to land hefty pay increases by jumping to a new job. But now the labor market is cooling off, leaving many feeling stuck.
A number of workers have realized it's getting a lot harder to do something new.
Why are so many workers feeling stuck as the job market cools?
If someone was looking for a job elsewhere, that's been trickier, particularly for white-collar work.
Wall Street Journal reporter Chip Cutter will join us to discuss how to become unstuck in your career. After the break.
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Many workers are feeling stuck in their jobs, and their bosses are taking notice. Wall Street Journal reporter Chip Cutter joins me. Chip, we just went through several years of people changing jobs and getting raises. Why do they feel stagnant?
Well, it's quite the shift from the great resignation where people were just changing jobs left and right to now when the job market has started to cool. A number of employers are not filling open positions. We've seen turnover rates drop.
How widespread is the slowdown in promotions and internal mobility?
Promotion rates are dropping internally. So it's all just led to less movement within companies. And that's led a lot of workers to feel like they are stuck, that it's hard to get a new position right now. And that's starting to weigh on some people.
Is this feeling among workers becoming more widespread?
A number of workers have realized it's getting a lot harder to do something new. If someone was looking for a job elsewhere, that's been trickier, particularly for white collar work. And even if we look at what's happening inside big companies, there's some data from the payroll services provider ADP, which shows rates of promotion into management have slowed for almost every single age group. So if you were looking for a better title, more pay, it's probably going to be harder to achieve that.
So at least somebody who's listening, who feels this way, can take a deep breath knowing it's not just them. What other factors are going into this?
Part of it is exactly what you described. Sort of after years and years of big hiring, there's the inevitable slowdown where companies are going to cool. We've also seen there really be a push for efficiency. So companies want to try to do more with less right now. They're under pressure from shareholders to try to be as efficient as possible, particularly in the age of AI. So there's a lot of rethinking of what roles are really needed. Why would we add that new position where tech might be able to do more of that role? All of that has led companies to be really reluctant to add more people into middle management, to add more layers of bureaucracy within an organization. If you're a worker, I think it gets really tricky to think about how you should navigate your career right now.
Nobody wants to feel like they are just sort of stuck, that they're marching in place, that they're not progressing. The reason bosses are concerned is because if a lot of people just feel like they're just stagnant, that's not healthy. That can sort of weigh on people's performance.
Yeah, it might cause people to feel like they're in a bind. How is this showing up on companies' radars?
First off, they're looking at engagement surveys.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:41
2
Why are so many workers feeling stuck as the job market cools?
0:41–2:06
3
How widespread is the slowdown in promotions and internal mobility?
2:06–4:11
4
What role do company efficiency drives and AI play in career stagnation?
4:11–6:36
5
How are employers detecting and responding to employee stagnation?
6:36–8:03
6
What internal programs (like job swaps) are companies using to re-engage staff?
8:03–9:15
7
Are employees open to temporary job swaps and what are the benefits?
9:15–9:50
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from WSJ Your Money Briefing
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