The concept of a ‘job for life’ continues to die – with only one in three employees planning to commit themselves to their current place of work in the long term, and the average employee looking for a new job within a year and a half of starting.

A new survey has found that job fears, a lack of loyalty from both parties and a mercenary approach to the world of work means most staff don’t expect to stay with their current employer for long. More than half of 2000 adults surveyed don’t think they will be with their current company in five years’ time.

The study, conducted by AAT – the professional body for accounting technicians, also showed that a typical employee begins looking for other opportunities after just one year and five months in the same position and over a third of them feel that spending eighteen months in a job warrants a promotion.

Jane Scott Paul, Chief Executive at AAT, said: ”Even in a tough jobs climate, people are always going to hold on to their ambitions and it’s clear the mindset has changed when it comes to trying to achieve those goals.

”It’s surprising that people are quite as willing to leave their current company, but the trend is very much moving away from a long-term commitment to a workplace and seems geared far more towards personal progression.”

A fifth of the survey sample said the very mention of a job for life would ‘drive them mad’ or cause them to feel trapped, while many claimed it was just too big a commitment.

Here are a few interesting statistics from the survey:

• 2 out of 3 Brits don’t feel they owe any loyalty toward their company
• 3 out of 5 are constantly keeping their eye out for new jobs
• A third are actively searching for something better.
• The average person has spent 4 years working for their present company
• 1 in 4 is neither satisfied nor challenged in their role.
• A fifth of respondents feel they have more ambition than their current job allows
• 18 percent love their job that they do
• 60 percent say they don’t have a dream job to aim for.
• 50 percent said they would consider retraining to change career.

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