The growing movement, unlike job-hopping and quiet-quitting, could affect the number of roles employers advertise in 2026 as more people stay in their jobs to avoid economic uncertainty.
Professional social media platform LinkedIn revealed the trends on Thursday in a study of more than 2000 workers designed to highlight changes following the "great resignation" during the COVID pandemic.
The findings come after employment growth cooled in December, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.3 per cent.
The study, conducted for LinkedIn by Censuswide, quizzed 2001 Australian adults about their job plans in 2026.
More than half the respondents (51 per cent) said they planned to look for a new role in 2026 - a fall from 59 per cent in 2025.
More than two in three people said finding employment had become more difficult in the past year, and four in five said they felt unprepared to look for a new position.
Fear and economic uncertainty played a major role in their intentions, LinkedIn career expert Brendan Wong said, and many more employees would be "job-hugging" to avoid risks.
"It's definitely replaced what we saw a year or two ago when there was quiet-quitting where people were doing the bare minimum," he told AAP.
"Now, because of the way the job market is, people prefer stability so they're retaining their jobs, not because they particularly like them."
Artificial intelligence technology also played a role in Australians' reluctance to swap employers, the study found, as more than one in three said they were unsure about how AI was being used in the hiring process.
The technology had become a major part of assessing resumes and interviewing candidates, Mr Wong said, which could feel confronting to those unfamiliar with the technology.
"It is changing the traditional processes of job interviews and applications," he said.
"Even at the start of the vetting process when people are putting forward applications, they know AI is potentially the reason why they may not get to a hiring manager."
Using AI technology as a digital employment coach could make candidates feel more prepared for the process, he said, by practising ways to answer challenging questions and consider relevant job experience.
