More than half, or 65%, of Irish employers have reported that they decided not to interview someone who has had short-tenure jobs in the past, according to research from Indeed.

In seeking to define "job hopping", on average employers consider six months to be a short-tenure to spend in a job, and employees consider 11 months a short period of time. Indeed added according to most employers, having four short tenure jobs on their CV would qualify a candidate as a “job hopper”, although 44% feel that three such roles would.

Indeed also found that job hopping is more of a concern in smaller companies with less than ten employees, with one in four such employers admitting to not interviewing a candidate for that reason. This compares to fewer than one in seven (13%) in companies with over 500 employees.

From the employee’s perspective, 29% felt job hopping would ultimately hurt their career, while 57% felt it wouldn’t “really have any impact”.

When asked what was an acceptable amount of time to stay in a job in order to contribute, gain experience and progress your career, employers and employees shared more common ground, with employers on average agreeing 16 months and employees 19-20 months. On average employers feel it’s acceptable for a candidate to change jobs 3 times in a 5-year period.

Meanwhile, when asked their reasons for leaving roles after a short period of time, 40% of employees cited an unhappy workplace as the main reason, while the second most popular reason for leaving a role prematurely was the offer of a better role with another company.