Why your best IT people are leaving

Your youngest IT professionals are heading for the exits. According to the Spiceworks 2025 State of IT Report, 53% of Gen Z IT workers plan to seek new employment in 2025—more than triple the rate of Baby Boomers at just 15%.

The broader picture isn’t much better. Across all age groups, 36% of IT professionals plan to look for new jobs this year. Millennials aren’t far behind Gen Z at 42%, and even Gen X is eyeing the door at 32%.

If you’re a veteran IT leader, this probably feels backward. We’re used to junior staff sticking around longer while they learn the ropes. Not anymore.

The Gen Z exodus isn’t typical job hopping

Here’s what’s happening: Gen Z IT professionals enter the workforce with cloud-native skills and expectations for rapid career progression that don’t match traditional IT department structures. And when their needs and priorities collide with IT organizations that are set in their ways, these young IT pros tend to cut bait.

According to the Spiceworks research, IT professionals most often seek new jobs because they’re pursuing salary increases and career growth opportunities. This strategy works, too, so no one could fault them for it—63% of job switchers earn higher wages after landing new roles.

Consider their perspective. A 24-year-old IT professional understands modern security frameworks, can automate routine tasks with scripting, and knows cloud-native technologies. When they’re stuck maintaining aging infrastructure instead of working on modernization projects, they start updating their LinkedIn profiles.

Previous generations might have accepted slower salary growth in exchange for job security, but Gen Z treats competitive pay as a baseline requirement for the here and now rather than a long-term goal to be achieved down the line. They have a good reason for doing so, too: a recent Deloitte survey found that nearly half of Gen Zs (48%) and Millennials (46%)Opens a new window say they don’t feel financially secure.

Younger IT pros seek professional development opportunities that may not be available at their current gigs. Many organizations still treat training and certification programs as costs to be minimized rather than retention tools. When younger IT professionals see their skills becoming outdated or irrelevant, they find employers who will invest in their growth.

Why Millennials and Gen X are also looking

Millennials face their own frustrations. Many of them are hitting career ceilings in organizations that still operate with rigid hierarchies. They’ve put in their time and developed significant IT chops, but they find themselves competing for limited senior roles or watching less qualified external candidates get hired into management positions they feel ready to handle.

Gen X turnover should especially concern you. These folks are your institutional knowledge carriers—the people who remember why certain systems were implemented and how to work around their quirks. They also came up through the ranks at a time when job-hopping wasn’t so common. As a result, they tended to be loyal to their employers. When Gen Xers have decided it’s time to move on, you may want to take a careful look at why that is.

The Boomers staying put may give you peace of mind today, but they won’t be clocking in forever. While their deep experience is very valuable, many of them will retire in the coming years. In the meantime, you’re losing the younger workers who should be learning from them right now.

What this really costs you

Understanding why people leave is one thing. Calculating what their departure actually costs is another. When younger IT professionals depart, you’re looking at more than just replacement hiring costs. You’re often also losing skills in emerging technologies like AI integration, containerization platforms, and modern DevOps practices that your organization needs for modernization efforts.

Current projects could take a hit, too. That AI governance framework implementation? That zero-trust security rollout you’ve been planning? That cloud infrastructure modernization you had on tap for later in the year? All those initiatives typically depend on a mix of experience and fresh perspectives. Lose key team members mid-project, and you’re looking at delays while remaining staff scrambles to fill knowledge gaps.

Team morale suffers when high performers quit, especially when it feels like those folks might have stayed under the right circumstances. Remaining team members start questioning their own career prospects and wondering if they could get better pay elsewhere, potentially resulting in additional turnover.

Retention tactics that actually work

Good IT talent is hard to find, so the last thing you want is to lose your star employees. Fortunately, there are steps you can take now to keep your most talented IT people from leaving.

1. Proactively address their compensation. Rather than waiting for exit interviews to learn you’re underpaying critical team members, conduct market salary reviews before your people start job hunting. Use tools like PayScale or Glassdoor to benchmark positions, then address gaps early.
2. Build technical advancement paths for them. Not everyone wants to manage people, but everyone wants career growth. Create senior technical roles, subject matter expert positions, and specialist tracks that offer advancement without requiring management responsibilities. A “Senior Systems Engineer” or “Cloud Infrastructure Architect” role recognizes expertise without forcing technical people into people management.
3. Make skills development a retention tool. Support certification programs, conference attendance, and training in emerging technologies. When a team member wants to pursue AWS certifications or attend a security conference, say yes. The cost of training is minimal compared to replacement hiring.
4. Give them ownership of meaningful projects. Let younger IT professionals lead initiatives that match their skills. Cloud migrations, security implementations, automation projects—these align with their interests and demonstrate trust in their capabilities.
5. Accept today’s remote work reality. Flexible work arrangements aren’t fringe benefits anymore, especially for younger generations. Organizations insisting on rigid office requirements will continue losing talent to more adaptable competitors.

Don’t wait for the next exit interview

Your best people have options, and they’re increasingly willing to use them. To make sure your IT team can continue to thrive in the future, it’s wise to get ahead of this trend instead of simply reacting to it. Take a close look at your compensation structure, career pathways, and development programs now—before your next exit interview reveals what you should have done months ago.