In this job market, career security is often a solo project

• Given the tight labor market, building skills and networking can help foster career security.
• Adding to your abilities is important because employers often expect more from the people they hire.
• Focusing on in-demand skills like AI can help you stand out from other applicants.

Increasingly, building career security is becoming a DIY project.

Rather than assuming you'll be allowed to keep your job as long as you're a dutiful worker, you might want to focus on building your skills, experience, and professional connections, career advisors told Business Insider.

That's important because protecting yourself today often has less to do with showing loyalty to your employer than with investing in yourself, said Keith Spencer, a career expert at Resume Now.

"Job security is no longer a thing, but career security absolutely is," he said.

In short: It's not unreasonable to expect to get laid off at some point in your career, so you want to set yourself up to be able to find a new gig quickly.

"Security is not coming from loyalty to your employer anymore," Spencer said. Instead, it's coming from "investment in your own self."

To help achieve some career safety, he said, workers should think about adding the skills and credentials that employers are seeking — including in hot areas like AI. Building a network that can offer support when it's needed matters too, Spencer said.

Taking action is important because the alternative could be living in fear that your employer has all of the power.

Just over half of respondents in a 2025 survey by the American Psychological Association reported that concerns about job security had a "significant impact" on their stress levels. The survey involved about 2,000 employed adults in the US.

The bar for new hires is rising

Investing in your skills also matters because more employers expect you to have the goods from the start.

Companies now tend to demand that new employees show up more polished, more productive, and more tech-savvy than in the past, particularly when it comes to their AI chops, Spencer said.

"Companies are expecting people to have more skills, wear more hats, do more with less," he said.

The expectation creep is especially pronounced for those just starting out. Spencer said that he hears from professionals early in their careers that employers expect them to "intrinsically know how to use AI to make your role more productive and more efficient."

That's often without employers providing training and support on how workers should use AI to level up the quality of their work, he said.

Competition for roles is up

Regardless of workers' experience levels, employers are ratcheting up their expectations for roles because they can. In many fields, there's a deep supply of knowledgeable workers, and a sizable share of candidates now bring advanced degrees, Spencer said.

"Employers are just seeing sort of the baseline qualifications that a lot of people are bringing to the table and then raising their own qualifications accordingly," he said.

It comes as workers, broadly, are staying on the job for less time than years ago. By the start of 2024, US workers had been with their employer an average of 3.9 years, the lowest number since 2002, according to a biennial snapshot from the Labor Department.

If you're in healthcare or in a high-demand area like AI, you might be all set when it comes to career security. For many desk workers, however, the job market can look far less reassuring.

LinkedIn reports that the number of applicants per role has more than doubled since the spring of 2022 and that hiring in the final stretch of 2025 was 23% below where it was pre-pandemic.

'What impact did you have?'

Job market weariness could be one reason some workers are giving off go-it-alone vibes. The share of US LinkedIn users who added the title "founder" to their profiles surged by 69% in a year, the platform reported in December.

Of course, some of that could be a vein of entrepreneurship running through some enterprising individuals. It could also be a sign that desperate job seekers are beefing up their profiles or feel forced to try something new.

While it might impress employers to know that you started something, the thing itself matters, said Catherine Fisher, a career expert with LinkedIn.

Recruiters, she said, are less likely to be swayed by the title "founder" than by what you've built, the skills required to do that, and the ultimate result.

"They're going to want to see, 'What impact did you have?'" she said.

That's one reason that it's important to demonstrate the skills you have, Fisher said. Too often, she said, job seekers leave skills off their résumés and LinkedIn profiles.

Spencer said that while it can be disheartening to think you have to do more to protect yourself in this competitive era, it can also be framed as a call to action to strengthen your skills and network.

"Focus on what you can control, rather than fixating on what's out of your hands," he said.

Do you have a story to share about your career? Contact this reporter at tparadis@businessinsider.com.