“It used to be that you’d have lifetime employment with one employer, and that you’d never really have breaks,” said John Challenger, the chief executive at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an executive-outplacement firm. “Now we’re seeing plenty of people who decide to take advantage of the natural gaps that occur in one’s work history.”
Data suggests that job-hopping behavior may be generational; according to LinkedIn, in 2016, millennials switched jobs 2.2 times more than nonmillennials and had a lower median tenure before hopping.
Mr. Challenger said that the chance to take time off can be the silver lining to “no-fault job loss”; say, companywide downsizing.