For years, Generation Z has been described as the workforce’s restless generation. Young employees supposedly change jobs at the first sign of frustration, expect rapid advancement and have little patience for the traditional idea of paying their dues.
Older workers, meanwhile, are generally assumed to represent stability, loyalty and long-term commitment.
New research from Eagle Hill Consulting suggests those familiar assumptions deserve another look.
The company’s latest Employee Retention Index, released October 7, finds that Gen Z employees have the strongest retention outlook of any generation measured. Baby Boomers have the weakest, while Generation X has also experienced a substantial decline in its willingness to remain with current employers.
The findings do not establish that younger workers are actually staying in jobs longer. They measure attitudes associated with employees’ likelihood of remaining with their organizations over the next six months. Nevertheless, the generational reversal is striking.
A widening divide between generations
Gen Z’s retention index rose to 112.8 during the third quarter of 2026, while the Baby Boomer index fell to 90.5. The resulting 22.3-point difference is the largest gap recorded between the youngest and oldest workers in Eagle Hill’s research.
Generation X also reported weakening retention sentiment, falling 5.3 points to 93.8, while Millennials declined slightly to 106.8.
The overall index fell to 102.1, its lowest reading since 2024. Workplace culture was a particularly significant source of deterioration, with the study’s Culture Indicator dropping 3.1 points and nearly erasing a year’s worth of improvements.
These figures suggest that declining employee commitment is not distributed evenly throughout the workforce. It is particularly pronounced among people who have already accumulated years of professional experience.
Maybe loyalty has more to do with career stage than generation
Generational labels make workplace behavior easy to explain, but they can obscure the practical circumstances of employees’ lives.
Someone entering the workforce may place considerable value on securing a position, developing skills and establishing financial stability. Staying with an employer can offer opportunities that would be difficult to replace, particularly when the job market feels uncertain.
An experienced employee may be evaluating a different set of concerns. Years of organizational changes, leadership transitions, expanding responsibilities or disappointing advancement opportunities can gradually weaken the relationship between an employee and a company.
Neither response necessarily reflects a generational personality trait. Both may be reasonable reactions to where someone is in a career.
That possibility complicates the familiar story that younger workers lack loyalty while older employees possess it naturally. Loyalty may depend less on the year someone was born than on whether employment continues to meet their evolving needs.
The Eagle Hill findings do not identify those career-stage explanations as proven causes, but they offer a useful way to interpret the widening divide.
The workplace culture problem
Perhaps the more consequential finding involves workplace culture.
Eagle Hill reports that culture sentiment declined by seven points among Gen X and 5.5 points among Baby Boomers. Gen Z also experienced a decline, while Millennials were the only generation to show improvement.
For experienced employees, dissatisfaction can carry consequences beyond an individual resignation. These workers often hold institutional knowledge, manage important relationships and help newer colleagues understand how an organization operates.
When their connection to the workplace weakens, companies risk losing expertise that may be difficult to document or replace.
It also raises a question that organizations sometimes overlook: Are they spending so much energy understanding what younger employees want that they are missing what established employees have stopped receiving?
Career development, recognition, trust in leadership and a sense of purpose do not become irrelevant simply because someone has spent decades working.
Staying isn’t always the same as wanting to stay
The wider labor market adds another complication.
Eagle Hill notes that hiring has been subdued and actual resignation rates have remained relatively stable. Workers who are dissatisfied may have fewer attractive alternatives, even if they are increasingly open to leaving.
That distinction is important when interpreting retention data. A company can experience low turnover without having a particularly committed workforce.
Similarly, Gen Z’s stronger retention outlook does not prove that younger employees have suddenly embraced lifelong employment. It reflects how respondents currently view their prospects and relationships with their employers.
The study is based on ongoing Ipsos surveys of employed U.S. adults, with at least 1,200 responses aggregated each quarter. The latest results cover July through September 2026.
The end of the easy generational explanation
The idea that every generation approaches work with a fundamentally different personality has always been appealing. It produces memorable headlines and convenient explanations for complicated workplace problems.
But the latest findings suggest something less tidy and potentially more useful.
Young employees can value stability. Experienced employees can become restless. Commitment can strengthen or erode depending on opportunity, workplace culture and the changing expectations people bring to different stages of their careers.
Perhaps the question employers should be asking is not why Gen Z refuses to be loyal, but why some of their most experienced workers are becoming less interested in staying.
After years of portraying younger employees as the problem, the workforce may be telling a very different story.
Source and methodology
Eagle Hill Consulting, Employee Retention Index, October 7, 2026. The index tracks organizational confidence, workplace culture, compensation and perceptions of external job opportunities through monthly Ipsos surveys. Quarterly results aggregate at least 1,200 employed U.S. adult respondents.
Official research announcement: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/eagle-hill-retention-index-falls-to-lowest-level-since-2024-as-employees-grow-more-likely-to-leave-302901306.html
Eagle Hill Consulting, Employee Retention Index, October 7, 2026. The index tracks organizational confidence, workplace culture, compensation and perceptions of external job opportunities through monthly Ipsos surveys. Quarterly results aggregate at least 1,200 employed U.S. adult respondents.