• Job openings are down, and hiring is slow, making job switching risky in 2025.
• Tariffs and interest rates are also causing economic uncertainty, affecting employer hiring plans.
• This is the third installment in BI's six-part series on making major life decisions during this period of massive change.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

For many workers, that well-worn bit of folk wisdom might be the best advice for deciding whether to switch jobs in 2025.

If you have a job and aren't in a hot field like artificial intelligence, it's likely smart to stay put unless you're worried about getting cut — or are simply miserable, labor market observers told Business Insider.

In the third installment of BI's six-part series on making major life decisions in periods of immense policy-driven change, we're looking at whether now is a good time to change jobs. We've already covered best practices for starting a business and buying a house.

There are some key reasons you might want to stick it out in your current role. Among the biggies: Overall job openings are down, hiring is happening at the slowest pace in about a decade, and some employers feel jittery.

That's partly because many are facing major questions about what will happen with tariffs and interest rates. The uncertainty has spilled into financial markets, whose swings have at times been like a check engine light for the US economy.

It all adds up to a labor market that's "paralyzed," Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told BI.

"Employers are not sure if they can commit to certain hiring plans," he said.

That means if you're thinking about handing in your two weeks' notice, you likely have more to consider than only a few months ago — including how robust your network is, how many job postings there are in your field, and how well your employer is doing, Susan Peppercorn, an executive coach, told BI.

"It's not the strongest job market, but then again, it's not the weakest," she said.

Overall, job postings in the US have dropped by 5 percentage points in 2025, Stahle said.

It's not the same job market it was

Postings for white-collar roles fell by 12.7% from the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025, according to Revelio Labs, which examines employment trends. In the same period, openings for blue-collar jobs dropped by 11.9%.

Taking a longer view, opportunities for some desk jobs are far less prevalent than during the job-hopping bonanza of a few years ago. From the Great Resignation era in early 2022 through the first quarter of 2025, postings for software developers and business analysts each fell by about 76%, while openings for market research work dropped by about 80%, Revelio found.

Yet, it's not all bad news. Stahle said that demand for workers in areas including healthcare and construction has held up. On top of that, he said, many employers that struggled to attract workers just a few years ago aren't eager to lay them off now, especially as it's unclear how long factors like the tariff morass might persist.

To know whether it's a good time to make a move, you might only need to ask someone out of work. On average, people are spending more time looking.

As of April, the median time job seekers were unemployed was a seasonally adjusted 10.4 weeks, according to the Labor Department. That's up from eight weeks in June 2022.

Switching might take time

You might be tempted to jump because, broadly, fewer of us are dialed into what we do. In 2024, the global share of engaged employees dropped to 21% from 23%, recent figures from Gallup show. That's only the second annual drop since 2009; the other was 2020, during pandemic lockdowns.

Stahle said that if you don't like your job and there aren't other options at your employer, you should be prepared for the search to take longer.

If you're unhappy in your role, you might focus on growing by adding skills or looking for other spots at your employer, Jennifer Dulski, CEO and founder of Rising Team, a team-performance platform, told BI.

If your job is at risk, or you think it might be, start searching, she said.

How to start looking for a job

Dulski said that your search should involve more than scrolling through openings. You'll need to contact people and start connecting — a term she prefers over networking.

With fewer openings and employers taking longer to bring people aboard, any edge can help.

"People need to work harder now to stand out," said Dulski, who's spent some 25 years in tech, including leadership positions at Yahoo, Google, and Facebook.

Peppercorn offered similar advice, saying that if you're in the market, you have to be able to show what makes you "unique and compelling."

How successful you're likely to be in your job search — and how quickly it plays out — will have a lot to do with your skills, she said.

Those abilities have to be well-suited for what employers want, Peppercorn said. A job change might not be hard if you're a nurse or someone developing AI tools, for example.

Ultimately, the jobs have to be there. Peppercorn said you should hope to see at least 10 open roles you could apply for and would have a reasonable shot at landing.

It also makes more sense, she said, to put in well-crafted job applications rather than go after loads of openings in hopes of getting a bite. Peppercorn also said that if a posting has more than 50 applicants, it might be worth looking elsewhere.

Perhaps above all, she said, forging ties with others will remain essential.

"What it takes to get another job is strong network connections, not what you see posted online," Peppercorn said.

Do you have a story to share about your job hunt? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

• With recession chatter and general market uncertainty, is 2025 a good time to start a business?
• Business Insider asked financial planners and business owners to weigh in.
• This is the first installment in BI's six-part series on making major life decisions during uncertainty.

When longtime friends Shelton Steele and Joe Balcken started thinking about opening an urban cabin campground that matched the outdoor personality of Asheville, North Carolina, the timing may not have seemed ideal.

"Our business incubation period was Covid, so there couldn't have been a more unpredictable period in life," Steele told Business Insider.

Still, they moved forward with their vision of building 16 tiny A-frame cabins and opened Wrong Way River Lodge & Cabins in 2022. As it turned out, a post-COVID climate marked by an increase in outdoor recreation worked in their favor, and "we came out of the gates beating our projections," said Steele.

A couple of years later, Hurricane Helene, which decimated numerous parts of the Southeast, most notably Asheville, would be less positive.

"We were closed for the whole month of October. It was absolutely crippling," said Steele, noting that the fall season is their busiest.

About a mile down the road, Cooperative Coffee Roasters owner Matt McDaniel survived the pandemic and Helene while also dealing with unprecedented coffee market volatility.

His costs increased so much from when he launched in 2019 that, in 2024, he had to raise prices up to 18% for wholesale clients.

"I definitely didn't expect things to be so volatile in the world," said the business owner, who has not only maintained operations during chaotic periods but expanded his roasting facility to include a café in 2024. "But I also don't think I was holding on too rigidly to the idea that things would just be smooth and easy either."

As Steele and McDaniel's experiences weathering more than just economic headwinds have shown, recession chatter and general economic uncertainty shouldn't necessarily halt your plans to launch a business in 2025.

"It's always a great time to start a business — and some of the most successful businesses are started during recessions," certified financial planner Cary Carbonaro told BI.

In the first installment in BI's six-part series on making major life decisions in periods of uncertainty, we're looking at whether now is a good time to start a business.

Successful businesses come from recessions

Morgan Stanley compiled a list of companies created during depressions, recessions, and general economic stress — including American Airlines in 1930 and Airbnb in 2008 — and it included nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies.

"Adversity is the mother of invention," said Carbonaro.

That said, you still have to have a sound business plan and be prepared financially. Carbonaro recommends having a big enough runway that you could operate for a year without turning a profit. That's in addition to your personal emergency fund, she noted, which should cover between three and six months' worth of expenses.

To further mitigate risk, she advises keeping your full-time job and starting your business as a side project. Only when it grows to the point where you can consistently pay yourself enough to cover your needs and lifestyle should you consider walking away from your day job.

Certified financial planner Kenneth Chavis IV wants entrepreneurs to think about how a new business would fit into their short-, mid-, and long-term money goals.

"You want to make sure that that decision is really aligned with what you're setting out to do," he told BI. "Really just ask, 'What's sparking the decision?'"

Then, imagine how you and your business would react to a recession or a major challenge such as trade policy changes: "Are you ready to stick it out? There's a high percentage of startups that certainly don't make it past the first couple of years, so I would want to really make sure that somebody has the right expectations and that they're prepared both with what their plan is to do in the business and also with their personal finances."

Consider 'recession-proof' businesses that excite you

Certain industries may be more recession-resilient than others.

"The economy will go up and down over the many decades you're an investor, but some industries withstand recessions better than others," writes financially independent entrepreneur Grant Sabatier in his book "Inner Entrepreneur."

Take the home services industry, for example: "No matter what the state of the economy, people still need their heating and air conditioning to work." Sabatier considers plumbing, electrical installation and repair, landscaping, and other home services businesses "recession-proof."

As more and more homes are built across the country, the demand for these services will only increase, he added: "There's a reason why private equity firms are buying up home-service companies — because they're always in demand and very profitable."

Sabatier also categorizes childcare services as recession-resistant — "working parents require childcare regardless of economic conditions" — as well as businesses offering education and job training. "Individuals often seek to improve their skills or retrain during economic downturns to enhance their employment prospects."

Business coach and creator of The Break Community Mike Gardon says to "pick industries that have growth behind them and solve real problems."

AI, for example, "has obvious tailwinds," he told BI. "If you have the chops to understand how to harness AI, that would be a good long-term business to be in."

What you're good at and what you like to spend your time on should factor in, as well.

"To start a business, you have to be madly passionate about what you're going to be doing," said Carbanaro. "A business should be a passion first, rather than a way to make money or a way to not work for somebody else."

As McDaniel puts it, build your "sandbox to play in." His sandbox is buying and roasting green coffee. For Steele, it's providing a space to share river culture and outdoor experiences with visitors.

Ideating something that sounds more like play than work will help you cross what Steele considers a prospective entrepreneur's biggest barrier to entry: starting.

"If you have the gumption and you feel like the timing is right, going for it is the big leap," he said.

McDaniel agrees that there's no one-size-fits-all answer. It comes down to the individual entrepreneur: "I don't think that there's ever a right time to open a business except for the time that you feel like you can do it."