Donna Van Natten, with The Enterprise Center, left, and Valoria Armstrong with Tennessee American Water converse during a jobs fair being held at the Urban League late Tuesday morning.In gray pants and a black shirt, toting a folder, Shemique Branch meandered from booth to booth at the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga’s jobs fair Tuesday, shaking hands and accepting business cards. She was just another face in the crowd, except for this: she’s not unemployed.
Unlike the many job seekers at the event who’d been out of work for a month, six months or a year, Branch already has a job. But it’s part time. And it’s a night shift. She wants to put her year-old bachelor’s degree from a Nashville university to better use.
“I gave myself three years in Chattanooga to spend time with my family and be home,” she said. “Then I’ll leave again.”
Branch is part of a growing number of young workers who are spending less time in each job and are changing the way companies look at employee retention, loyalty and recruiting.
“The day and age of cradle-to-grave employment is probably gone,” said Vince DiCecco, president and CEO of Your Personal Business Trainer, a Kennesaw, Ga., business coaching service.