Welcome to the “job hugging” era of corporate America in 2026

Welcome to the “job hugging” era of corporate America in 2026. About a decade ago, we entered the job hopping era, right? In 2016, you were encouraged to switch jobs every few years, because it was normal and strategic. But the funny part being, interviewing felt like a covert operation back then, because you'd have to take, like, a fake PTO day, dodge your coworkers on your morning commute, but sneak into the building across the street, or you fly to another city for a wedding that was really just a final round interview. But we did this for better pay, better title, better culture, better work life balance. It was the era of, like, if you're not job hopping, then you're falling behind, or at least you're leaving some things on the table. But now we're in the era of job hugging, just kind of holding on for dear life, because every week there's another round of layoffs across, you know, tech or finance or media or consulting. Like, basically every industry is getting hit. And this summer, you're also reminded that your younger cousin, the one with the 3.8, who's a varsity athlete, big four internship, student body president, like, even they can't get an interview, and they graduated three months ago. So this year we're, you know, job hugging, showing up with a little more extra enthusiasm, laughing at our boss's terrible jokes a little harder, volunteering to come in on July 3rd and the Friday before Labor Day weekend, basically, doing whatever it takes to avoid being added to that mysterious Excel spreadsheet labelled Q4 planning that's on our CFO's desk.