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Canadians holding on tight to the jobs they have: survey

A man looks at a job board posted at a job fair in Toronto, April 1, 2009. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Not everyone may be working their dream job, but it seems as though Canadians like to hang on tight to full-time work. In fact, more than half of Canadian workers haven’t looked for a new position in years, according to a new survey by Accountemps, a staffing service for temporary accounting, finance, and bookkeeping professionals.

Fifty-six per cent of employed workers polled said it’s been at least five years since they last looked for a new job. That figure includes 32 per cent of survey respondents who said they haven't conducted a job search in more than a decade. In the last two years, 25 per cent of workers have looked for a new job.

In the same survey, which polled nearly 400 Canadian adults who work in an office environment, 20 per cent of respondents said they plan to look for a new job in the next 12 months. Of those, 72 per cent expect the effort to be somewhat or very challenging.

Although staying with the same company your whole working life may be less common now than it has been in the past, there are pros and cons to never handing out that resume.

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“There’s nothing wrong with staying with the same company throughout your entire career providing it’s fulfilling, satisfying place to be that allows for professional and personal growth,” says Henry Goldbeck, president of and senior recruiter at Vancouver-based Goldbeck Recruiting Inc. “Twelve years experience at the same company isn’t necessarily better or worse than the experience someone gets from switching companies every year over those same 12 years.”

However, those looking to boost their salary may do better by making a change than by staying put.

“People typically have greater salary increases going to a new employer rather than staying with the same one and getting regular raises,” Goldbeck says.

It’s hard to get a clear sense on just how often people change jobs, because Statistics Canada hasn’t tracked careers among the same respondents over their entire working years.

A 2012 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, however, looked at the number of jobs people born between 1957 and 1964 held from age 18 to age 46. These younger Baby Boomers held an average of 11.3 jobs. On average, men held 11.4 jobs and women held 10.7.

In Britain, one third of people over age of 70 changed paths during their career, according to Edinburgh, Scotland-based pension and investment firm Scottish Widows. Young workers, meanwhile — those aged 18 to 29 — are twice as likely to drastically change career directions, with 65 per cent saying they’ve already changed careers at least once or are planning to in the near future.

Working Brits will reinvent their careers twice throughout their working lives, Scottish Widows found. Although those under 30 are most likely to make a big move, older workers are also taking career risks too, with 12 per cent of people over 50 who are planning to do so before they retire.

If you are seeking a new job, does it matter what time of year it is, given there’s a prevailing notion that January is the best time to be on the hunt, with first-quarter budgets being rolled out?

Nope, according to Goldbeck.

“It used to be that summers were slow, but now there’s no time of year that isn’t busy,” he says. “If you want a new job, then you should always be actively seeking a position.”

Employment among Canadians rose by 29,000 in January, the result of an increase in full-time work. The unemployment rate declined 0.2 percentage points to 7 per cent. The transportation and warehousing sectors saw the biggest gains, while declines occurred in business, building and other support services, and public administration.