When keeping your job feels more important than what comes next, career growth can become an easy thing to sacrifice. Layoffs are making headlines, AI is changing what companies need from their employees, and taking a chance on a new opportunity can suddenly feel like an unnecessary risk. A promotion at another company, a new industry or even asking for more money can seem less important than knowing you will still have a paycheck six months from now.
That mindset is fueling “job hugging,” a term for workers who stay in their current roles primarily because they are afraid of what could happen if they leave.
According to ResumeBuilder.com research, 57% of workers are job hugging. Among those workers, 70% worry AI will affect their job security within the next six months, while 63% fear being laid off. More than 80% believe leaving their current employer could make them more vulnerable because they would be the newer hire elsewhere.
The concern is not that people are clinging to their jobs, it is what they may be giving up to stay.
Stability or Stagnation?
There is nothing irrational about wanting a steady paycheck when the labor market feels uncertain. The trouble starts when holding onto one position means putting your career trajectory on pause.
That tradeoff is showing up in how people approach their jobs. More than half of job huggers (52%) are working longer hours, 45% have taken on responsibilities outside their roles and 35% are taking less time off, according to the ResumeBuilder research.
Extra effort can build experience, but when it is driven by fear, stability can come at the cost of career growth. Workers may spend more time proving they are worth keeping than developing new skills, pursuing promotions or preparing for their next opportunity.
As AI and changing business needs reshape the workplace, putting that development on hold can make it harder to take the next step when the opportunity comes.
Job Security Does Not Imply Career Security
Job hugging raises a bigger question about what security actually means. Career security, or as I like to call it, “career insurance,” is the ability to remain employable and find another opportunity when circumstances change. Meanwhile, job security is the confidence that you can keep the position you have. Having one does not necessarily mean you have the other.
A strong performance review cannot protect someone from a reorganization. Experience in one role does not guarantee that those skills will remain in demand. Even a successful career can become vulnerable when development stops.
That makes staying current just as important as staying employed. Learning new skills, building professional relationships and paying attention to changes in your industry can preserve options, even when leaving is not on the table.
In other words, career insurance should travel with you.
Retention Can Mask Risk
There is also a meaningful difference between staying because you want to and staying because you are afraid to leave.
From the outside, both can look like strong retention. Inside the organization, the experience can be very different. Someone who sees a future with their employer is building toward something. Someone who feels trapped may simply be waiting for the market to become less intimidating.
That matters as companies think about the future of work. A workforce can appear stable while people quietly postpone raises, promotions, skill development and career changes. When conditions improve, those unresolved frustrations may become a reason to leave.
Low turnover, then, does not always tell the full story. Sometimes people stay because they are satisfied. Sometimes they stay because the alternatives feel too risky.
Building Security That Travels
Staying in a job can be the right decision. A steady income matters, and there is no reason to make a risky move to prove ambition.
The goal is to avoid letting stability become stagnation.
Workers can keep developing skills, maintain relationships outside their immediate workplace and stay aware of where their industries are heading. None of that requires an active job search. The strongest form of security is knowing that if circumstances change, you are prepared to change with them.
