Job hugging is a workplace trend in which employees remain in their current jobs despite feeling disengaged or seeing limited advancement opportunities, typically due to economic uncertainty. [1] [2] The term gained prominence in mid-2025 as a contrast to pandemic-era "job hopping" and the high voluntary turnover associated with the Great Resignation. [3]
The term emerged amid muted labor-market churn in the United States, with job openings declining and voluntary quits remaining low by post-pandemic standards. [4] U.S. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data for June 2025 showed 7.4 million job openings, with 3.1 million quits and a quits rate of 2.1%—down from the 3% peak reached during the Great Resignation in 2022. [4] Surveys cited in business reporting showed reduced confidence among job seekers about available opportunities and increased caution among employers about staffing levels. [1]
Workplace commentators linked the behavior to several factors: a slower hiring environment, concerns about artificial intelligence displacing jobs, and a perception that external opportunities had become scarcer and harder to secure. [2] [5] The trend was characterized as involving employees who stay even when unmotivated or not advancing, prioritizing stability over career growth. [6] [7]
Korn Ferry introduced the phrase in August 2025, describing employees "holding onto their jobs for dear life"; a company spokesman later said the firm might have coined the term but could not say for certain. [5] [8] Fast Company and Business Insider reported on the term later that month, framing it as an inversion of job hopping tied to reduced quits and slower hiring. [3] [1] By fall 2025, the term had appeared in The New York Times and on The Daily Show , and explainers in The Week and The Independent had characterized job hugging as a response to a difficult job market, comparing it with earlier workplace narratives such as the Great Resignation and quiet quitting. [8] [6] [7]
Coverage also addressed potential downsides. Peter Cappelli, a professor at the Wharton School, noted that workers who feel stuck in place may experience stunted career development and miss out on the higher raises typically associated with changing jobs. [8] Cappelli also observed that reduced turnover can stall movement in the broader job market, since fewer vacancies open up for other workers. [8]
Some commentators described job hugging as an HR "buzzword" that repackages long-observed worker behavior rather than identifying a new phenomenon. [9] Critics argued that the label can distract from structural issues such as low productivity growth and workplace disengagement. [9] The Independent described the term as a "cute new term" that spread online, framing it as a reaction to labor-market conditions rather than a distinct form of workplace attachment. [7] Others noted that overall unemployment and layoffs outside specific sectors remained relatively low in 2025, limiting the extent to which job hugging mapped onto generalized labor-market distress. [2]