According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, more than half of retail hiring managers and human resource professionals (54 percent) said they have hired a job-hopper and more than one-third (36 percent) said they have come to expect workers to job-hop.
The online survey of 182 hiring managers and human resource professionals at retail took place in February and early March.
Of those who have hired someone they categorize as a job-hopper, 47 percent said the employee left after a short period of time and 29 percent said the job-hopper stayed on for two or more years.
Some advantages are seen to hiring people who have worked for numerous companies. More than half (54 percent) of retail employers say job-hoppers tend to have a wide range of expertise and can adapt quickly (55 percent). However, 44 percent said they would dismiss a job-hopper's application outright.
While 21 percent of retail employers who have hired a job-hopper find such employees to be above average performers, most said candidates were average (67 percent). Only 12 percent found job-hoppers to be poor performers.
Acceptance of the practice is influenced by the applicant's age. Fifty-percent expect a new college graduate to stay two years or less. But 55 percent of retail employers said job-hopping becomes less acceptable when a worker reaches his/her early to mid-30s (ages 30 or 35). Twenty-seven percent find job-hopping less acceptable after the age of 40.
"Retailers are split on the issue of job-hopping," said Rob Morris, director of WorkInRetail.com, CareerBuilder's job site for retail management and associates, in a press release provided to RetailWire. "While there is some acknowledgement that job-hopping is an industry fact-of-life, most employers still want to hire workers who can commit for at least a couple of years."
Compared to other industries, retail is tied for fourth place as far as having the largest percentage of employers who expect workers to job-hop:
- Information Technology - 42 percent
- Leisure & Hospitality - 41 percent
- Transportation - 37 percent
- Retail - 36 percent
- Sales representatives - 36 percent
- Manufacturing - 32 percent