Many Americans may be looking for a new job this year and here's why

**Christy Strawser** (0:01)
Welcome to On Deadline, your radio news from Odyssey newsrooms across the country.
I'm Christy Strawser, Odyssey's managing editor of news. Let's kick things off with news about jobs. Is Gen Z about to make big moves? Here's Beth Fisher on WWJ in Detroit.

**Beth Fisher** (0:17)
More business people are starting to think about looking for a new job, where for a while there, people were staying with their companies. Joining me to talk about it is Kaylee Abraham, Metro Detroit Branch Director for Robert Half. And Kaylee, what have you been finding?

**Kaylee Abraham** (0:35)
Yes. So 46% of US professionals plan to look for a new job in the second half of 2026 This is up from 38% in the first half of 2026 and 27% one year ago.
So what's driving this? The big stay mindset is starting to fade. So after an extended period of wait and see, more professionals are taking a step back to reassess where they are in their career and whether their current role still aligns with what they want next. More than simply chasing higher pay, workers are evaluating the full package, primarily in search of greater flexibility and career growth.

**Beth Fisher** (1:15)
And what are some of the other reasons they're thinking about jumping ship?

**Kaylee Abraham** (1:19)
Yeah. So expect a competitive talent market. More candidates are looking, but the top talent still has options.
So retention is now a front line priority. Employers that invest in the flexibility, career development and benefits will be better positioned to hold on to talent in this market.

**Beth Fisher** (1:37)
And is it any certain careers where people are going to be looking?

**Kaylee Abraham** (1:43)
Yeah. So movements being led by both early career talent and high demand skill areas. So Gen Z is driving the majority of the job search activity.
Early career professionals tend to be more mobile and focused on growth, building experience and finding roles that better match their expectations around flexibility and progression. As far as industries grow here in Metro Detroit, we've seen manufacturing picking up steam.

**Beth Fisher** (2:09)
Is salary still a big driver of why somebody wants to move on?

**Kaylee Abraham** (2:14)
So salary is still important, however, better benefits and perks, career advancement opportunities and remote work options are taking the cake right now.

**Beth Fisher** (2:25)
And how does AI play into all of this?

**Kaylee Abraham** (2:27)
At RubberHalf, we believe AI will ultimately be a good thing for the labor market. It's going to help automate tasks to free up professionals for more strategic work. However, employers are weary of candidates who are relying too heavily on AI in the job search process, especially to exaggerate their skills. So job seekers should be careful not to overstate experience using AI.
Use AI as a tool to refine your resume or prepare for interviews, but make sure your experience, skills and examples remain authentic and accurate. Yeah.

**Beth Fisher** (3:00)
Then what are employers looking for?

**Kaylee Abraham** (3:03)
Employers are looking for individuals who have that drive and who are highly skilled individuals, and they're really looking for the soft skills over necessarily anything else. That's really driving what we're seeing as far as candidates who are selected for roles right now.

**Beth Fisher** (3:24)
In terms of companies, what do they need to be doing to retain employees?

**Kaylee Abraham** (3:29)
Yeah. They need to be focusing on the benefits and perks and overall flexibility. That has been a key and essential to employees right now that are looking for work.

**Beth Fisher** (3:41)
All right. Anything you want to add?

**Kaylee Abraham** (3:43)
I would just say the demand for skilled talent persists as hiring remains steady. The labor market indicators continue to point to pent up demand for skilled talent, with unemployment remaining low and job openings still above historical norms, which is exciting to see.

**Beth Fisher** (3:59)
I've been talking with Kaylee Abraham. She is the Metro Detroit branch director for Robert Half.

**Christy Strawser** (4:06)
That's the good news about jobs. But how about your money and how safe it is from hackers? Let's check in with Tommy Tucker on WWL in New Orleans.

**Tommy Tucker** (4:15)
Jason Shield, chief operating officer with Golfco's Bank and Trust Company.

**Jason Shield** (4:20)
Yeah, so today, I thought we'd have a little bit of an interesting topic.
The back door that hackers have in your living room. So look, this is one of those stories that everyone's going to hear and they're going to think it sounds like science fiction. It's actually very real. So basically, last week, the Wall Street Journal put a story out that caught my attention. And it's something I've known about for a while, but the Wall Street Journal really put it in perspective, which was, Microsoft had contacted Comcast. Comcast is a big Internet provider, very similar to Cox or Spectrum or any of those things, about some suspicious activity they had on a couple of IP addresses. And IP addresses are basically just like their address you have at your house just for the Internet. It's a series of numbers that points to you. And then, what happened was, when Comcast sealed us back with Microsoft, they uncovered a much bigger network involving consumer devices, like streaming boxes and digital picture frames, ultimately resulting in over 750,000 home-based IP addresses. So peel that back a little bit, right? So in essence, that meant that all of those homes had some type of malicious activity coming out of it, unbeknownst to the home owners or the Internet users, right? Or the you and me or whoever was using it. And so basically, your home Internet can actually look on someone else's disguise. And what they do is they use something that's called a residential proxy. And it sounds really technical, but it basically means this. It's a middleman for Internet traffic. So instead of a hacker connecting to whatever it is that they want to do, some malicious activity or something, but what they do is they route that traffic through someone else's device. And in this instance, that device has 750,000 unknowing home Internet subscribers, right? So this is becoming a much, much bigger thing, right?