Work-Life Balance Overtakes Pay as the Main Reason Employees Stay in Their Jobs in Portugal

People in Portugal think that having a balance between their work and life is really important. This is now the reason people want to stay in their jobs even more, than how much money they get. This is what Randstads Workmonitor 2026 found out about work-life balance and pay.

A lot of people like to have a balance between their work and personal life. In fact most people stay in their job because of this work-life balance. Fifty one percent of employees do this. Twenty three percent of people say they stay because of the money they make and twenty two percent say it is because they feel safe in their job.

Many professionals want to be able to work when and where they want. Than forty percent of professionals would say no to a new job if they could not have flexible hours or work from a different location. A lot of people have already left a job because they did not have the freedom to make their decisions. Half of the people have done this. Work-life balance is very important, to professionals.

Money is still a deal when it comes to getting a new job with 87 percent of people saying it matters.. Being able to have a flexible schedule is becoming just as important. For people in Gen Z 67 percent like to be able to make their decisions about their career instead of just doing what everyone else does and following the usual path. They want to be able to shape their career paths and make choices that are right, for them rather than following traditional hierarchies.

In the tech sector a lot of companies 89 percent to be exact want to use Artificial Intelligence more over the next year. But here is the thing only half of the people who work in this field think they know enough, about Artificial Intelligence to keep up.

Most workers, 60 percent and most employers 70 percent think Artificial Intelligence will help get work done. However many people, 44 percent think that companies will benefit more from Artificial Intelligence than the employees who work for them the Artificial Intelligence.

“AI should not be seen as a replacement threat, but as a tool to augment human work,” says Isabel Roseiro, marketing director at Randstad. “Organizations that succeed will be those that offer the autonomy talent demands and foster genuine intergenerational collaboration.”