Job mobility

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Job mobility and job search of employed people, including changing industry or occupation, job tenure, and changes in current job (e.g. hours).

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Reference period
February 2026
Release date and time
31/07/2026 11:30am AEST

Key statistics

During the year ending February 2026:

  • the job mobility rate decreased to 7.2%
  • younger workers were more mobile than older workers, with 12.0% of people aged 15 to 24 years changing jobs
  • 2.1 million people left or lost a job
  • The annual retrenchment rate was 1.8%

This Job mobility release uses data sourced from the annual Participation, Job Search and Mobility (PJSM) survey. More information from the survey is published in:

Microdata from the PJSM survey for 2015 to 2026 will be released in TableBuilder and DataLab (as a supplementary file to the Longitudinal Labour Force) on 6 August 2026. For more information, refer to Microdata and TableBuilder: Participation, Job Search and Mobility.

Upcoming changes to the Participation, Job Search and Mobility survey

As part of the ABS Labour Force Survey modernisation program (see Modernising the Labour Force Survey), changes have been made to labour supplementary surveys, including Participation, Job Search and Mobility. These changes affect collection timing, reference periods and published outputs. As a result, this was the last Participation, Job Search and Mobility survey conducted in its current form.

Content previously collected through this survey will be incorporated into the new Labour Supplementary Survey, with data compiled and published annually on a calendar-year basis. The first estimates for 2026, based on data collected from August to December 2026, are expected to be released in April 2027. A similar range of data will continue to be available through the new survey outputs.

Duration in current job

There were 14.5 million people employed in February 2026. Over half (56%) had been employed in their current job for less than 5 years. About 16% had been in their job for less than 1 year.

The proportion of those in their current job between 1 and 4 years has decreased slightly since 2025, down from 40% to 39%.

About 1 in 10 employed people (10%) had been in their current job for 20 years or more.

New entrants to employment

2.4 million people started their current job in the year ending February 2026. This was a decrease of 13,000 people compared with the year ending February 2025.

Of those who started their current job in the year ending February 2026, 1.3 million entered or re-entered employment without working during the last 12 months (i.e. they did not change jobs during the year). These 'new entrants' into employment include people who have:

  • never worked before and started their first job
  • started a new job after leaving or losing a previous job more than 12 months ago, or
  • resumed a held job or returned to a previous job after a period of absence (and reported their current duration of employment from their restart date).

New entrants were slightly lower for men (647,300) compared to women (692,000). 82% of new entrants were aged under 45 years with 39% aged 15 to 24 years.

The industries with the most new entrants were:

  • Health care and social assistance - 231,000
  • Accommodation and food services - 198,900
  • Retail trade - 179,700
  • Professional, scientific and technical services - 102,300
  • Education and training - 95,200.

People who changed jobs

1.0 million people changed jobs (i.e. changed their employer or business) during the year ending February 2026 - a job mobility rate of 7.2%. This was a decrease on the 7.7% recorded in the year ending February 2025.

Note: 2015 to 2026 data are available from Table 01 in Data downloads. Pre-2015 historical data can be found in the 2018 release of Participation, Job Search and Mobility publication. The job mobility rate is the number of people who changed jobs during the year as a proportion of people who were employed at the end of the year.

Age

Younger workers are generally more mobile than older workers. In February 2026, the job mobility rates for selected age groups were as follows:

  • Aged 15 - 24 years - 12.0%
  • Aged 25 - 44 years - 8.1%
  • Aged 45 - 64 years - 4.6%
  • Aged 65 years and over - 1.2%.

Note: 2015 to 2026 data are available from Table 01 in Data downloads. The job mobility rate is the number of people who changed jobs during the year as a proportion of people who were employed at the end of the year.

State and territory

The states and territories with the highest rate of job mobility were:

  • Northern Territory - 11.1%
  • Queensland - 8.3%
  • South Australia - 8.2%
  • Western Australia - 7.3%
  • Tasmania - 7.3%.

Job mobility decreased in most of the states and territories. The largest falls were for:

  • Australian Capital Territory - down 4.0 percentage points (from 11.2% to 7.2%)
  • Western Australia - down 1.3 percentage points (from 8.6% to 7.3%).

Note: The job mobility rate is the number of people who changed jobs during the year as a proportion of people who were employed at the end of the year.

Change in occupation

Job mobility decreased in five of the eight major occupation groups. The largest decreases were for:

  • Community and personal service workers (9.5% to 8.0%)
  • Professionals (7.4% to 6.2%)
  • Managers (6.2% to 5.6%)
  • Technicians and trades (8.3% to 8.0%).

Note: The job mobility rate is the number of people who changed jobs during the year as a proportion of people who were employed at the end of the year.

Note: The job mobility rate is the number of people who changed jobs during the year as a proportion of people who were employed at the end of the year.

As in previous years, Professionals made up the largest share of people who changed jobs. There were 233,100 professionals that changed jobs during the year ending February 2026, which was a 24% share of all people who changed jobs, slightly lower than the previous year. 

The next largest share was Technicians and trades workers at 15%, while Machinery operators and drivers had the smallest share (7.4% share, up from 6.9% in the previous year).

 

Of the 1.0 million people who changed jobs in the last year, 62% (649,000) were working in the same major occupation group as they were at the start of the year. 

All occupation groups except for Sales workers had a higher proportion of people who changed jobs within the same occupation group than into a different major occupation group. Sales workers had a higher proportion of people who changed jobs into a different occupation group.

Professionals had the highest proportion within the same occupation group (81%) with Sales workers having the lowest proportion within the same occupation group (44%).

Change in industry

Job mobility decreased in just under half of industries, with the largest decreases in:

  • Other services (9.8% to 6.9%)
  • Information media and telecommunications (7.5% to 5.3%)
  • Education and training (5.6% to 3.8%).

The industry that saw the largest increase in job mobility was Wholesale trade (4.3% to 10.1%).

Note: The job mobility rate is the number of people who changed jobs during the year as a proportion of people who were employed at the end of the year.

Note: The job mobility rate is the number of people who changed jobs during the year as a proportion of people who were employed at the end of the year.

The Health care and social assistance industry accounted for the largest share of people who changed jobs in the year ending February 2026 (12.5%). This was followed closely by Accommodation and food services (12.5%) and Retail trade (11.7%).

Left or lost a job

There were 2.1 million people in the year to February 2026 who left or lost a job in the previous 12 months, similar to the 2.1 million in the year to February 2025. 

Following a record low in the year to February 2023 (8%, or 183,200 people), the number of people retrenched in the year to February 2026 was 257,900, which was 12% of people who left or lost a job.

A quarter (25%) of all people who left or lost a job in the 12 months to February 2026 were people who left a job to obtain a better job or just wanted a change (509,200), down from 33% during the year ending February 2023.

The proportion of people losing or leaving a job who retired in the year to February 2026 was 6.3%, the same as the 6.3% in the year to February 2025.

Note:

  • Owner managers whose businesses closed down for economic reasons are included in "Retrenched"
  • Owner managers whose businesses closed down or were sold for other reasons are included in "Other reasons"

More men than women reported being retrenched last year (15% and 10%). The most common reason people left a job was to get a better job or just wanted a change (26% for men and 23% for women). A higher proportion of women reported leaving a job for family reasons than men (15% compared with 4%).

Note:

  • Owner managers whose businesses closed down for economic reasons are included in "Retrenched"
  • Owner managers whose businesses closed down or were sold for other reasons are included in "Other reasons"

Retrenchments

The annual retrenchment rate is the number of people who were retrenched in a given year as a proportion of the number of people who were employed at the start of that year. 

In the year ending February 2026, the retrenchment rate was 1.8%, which was down 0.1 percentage points from the year ending February 2025. Since 1972, the lowest retrenchment rate was in the year to February 2023 (1.3%) and the highest was in the year to February 1991 (7.2%).

Data downloads

Job mobility

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Data files

Engagements and Separations

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Data files

  • Table 4. Separations and other changes in employment of people employed last year by industry of job 12 months ago

    Download xlsx [5.32 MB]

  • Table 5. Engagements and other changes in employment of people employed last year by industry of current main job

    Download xlsx [5.29 MB]

  • Table 6. Separations and other changes in employment of people employed last year by occupation of job 12 months ago

    Download xlsx [4.08 MB]

  • Table 7. Engagements and other changes in employment of people employed last year by occupation of current main job

    Download xlsx [4.06 MB]

Previous catalogue number

This release uses ABS catalogue number 6223.0.

Methodology

Participation, Job Search and Mobility, Australia methodology, February 2026

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