Just under half of all professionals believe they should change jobs every three to five years, with public sector workers the most open to moving more frequently, according to recruiter Robert Walters’s Career Insights Survey 2011.

While 52% of public sector workers thought they should change jobs every one to three years, the highest figure of all, 21% of legal professionals and 24% of investment management and secretarial and support workers respectively wanted to move jobs that often.

Bankers would appear the most ambitious to progress, with 73% of those responding that lack of career progression would make them leave a role, while HR professionals were the least likely to do so, at just 54% of professionals.

The survey also finds that only 16% take their full lunch break and 8% work all the way through it.

While public sector and secretarial and support workers were the most likely to receive recognition for working overtime (36% and 33% respectively), it was in risk and legal professions that people were most likely to work more than 50 hours a week, with 31% and 30% respectively.