The Geography of Job-Hopping: Mapping the Best Cities for New Career Opportunities in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada

Job-hopping is the professional equivalent of speed-dating, allowing individuals to experience different roles, industries, and company cultures in quick succession, without making a lasting commitment to any of them.

Once looked upon with suspicion, many modern employers now view job-hopping as a valuable diversification of experience. However, this career strategy is not without its risks.

As one recruiter posted on LinkedIn, “I can spot a job hopper a mile away, and they always make me nervous.”

Job-hopping can fast-track a career or be a potential roadblock. Either way, the chances of becoming a successful job hopper largely depend on skill sets. For example, those with in-demand tech skills have little trouble hopping from one role to the next.

Another super important factor is location. And that’s exactly what this latest study from resume.io is all about. Based on data collected from LinkedIn, it lists the best job-hopping cities for work in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

It shows that Berkeley and tech hubs like Boston and Cambridge in Massachusetts have the highest number of US job-hoppers. This is down to their thriving tech sectors and a large talent pool made up of super-smart graduates with specialized tech skills.

In the UK, Manchester has the highest job-hopping churn rate due to its youthful, student-rich demographic, made up of ambitious graduates looking to get some experience and then move on up.

Australian cities like Brisbane and Adelaide are well-known for the ‘boomerang’ recruitment phenomenon, where employees often return  to previous employers for better pay less than a year after quitting

In Canada, Vancouver’s booming tech industry has created a buyers’ market for job-seekers, driving the city’s job-hopping trend where over 1 in 5 workers move onto a new job after less than a year.

Check out the rest of the best job-hopping cities in the maps and charts below.