Majority of UK workers stuck in the wrong job

Seven in ten workers are stuck in the wrong jobs as the prospect of making a career change seem so challenging that they would rather put themselves through a punishing workout, new research has revealed. Just three in ten UK workers (30 per cent) want to stay in their current career for the long-term, yet the time and effort they think it will takes to make a career switch – along with fears of being too old – mean that only a fifth (21 per cent) have ever taken any action to try and move into a job they truly want to do.

This is despite the fact that fewer than one in ten workers (9 per cent) can honestly say they are in their dream job. In fact, the prospect of tackling their career development is so daunting that over a third of workers (34 per cent) say they would rather put themselves through a circuits class than work on their CV. Likewise, 33 per cent would rather go to a personal trainer than start to confront a job change with a careers advisor, with the majority of 25-54 year old workers (51 per cent) believing that improving their fitness is much easier than bettering their job satisfaction or career prospects.

Fears of being ‘too old’ to boost their careers are also holding many people back from a happier work life, according to the research from LifeSkills created with Barclays. Almost half (48 per cent) of workers think there is a cut off age to being able to make a career change. Ironically, this feeling is particularly profound in the younger generation with more than one in ten Gen Z-ers* (13 per cent) thinking they won’t be able to make a career change past the age of 30.

Aston spoke to Kirstie Mackey, head of lifeskills at Barclays to discuss the research in further detail.