Job-hopping has experienced a tremendous spike in recent years because of Millennials, 53 percent of whom have had three or more jobs despite being new to the workforce.

Currently, 74 percent of employees are actively looking for a new job, while 69 percent say that searching for new opportunities is part of their “regular routine.” With this sort of prevalence, it’s important to know why job-hopping has become the new norm. Why are Millennials behaving this way?

When asked the most likely reason why they would leave their current company, 5 percent of Millennials said they would take time off to travel, 25 percent said they would consider a job with a competitor, 37 percent said they would pursue a completely different career path, 22 percent said they would relocate to live in a different city, and 11 percent said they would relocate because of a significant other.

These reasons are varied, but they shed light on a pervasive willingness amongst Millennials to leave one job for another, regardless of any of the historical consequences associated with job-hopping.

While it’s believed that Millennials prefer office jobs to manual labor, 47 percent say they would consider switching to a blue collar job. The reasons why they would consider this change include more flexibility in work/life balance (39 percent), better compensation opportunities (35 percent), more fulfilling work in terms of company values and opportunities (31 percent), new opportunities to leverage skills in budding industries (26 percent), and to work in an environment with less regulation (9 percent).

Personal development and freedom are critical to Millennials, and as these statistics demonstrate, they’re willing to upend their career trajectories to exercise those rights or explore entirely new paths.

These statistics along with others detailed in our new eBook, “Job-Hopping: The New Norm,” give greater insight into the motivation and goals of the generation that has become the obsession of talent acquisition departments everywhere. Download the eBook to learn more about what motivates Millennials to switch jobs, the employee-related initiatives they want their employers to focus on, and more.