Forty-one percent of millennials—and 30% of all adults—said they’ve found it difficult to move up in their fields because boomers are waiting longer to retire, according to a USA TODAY/LinkedIn survey of 1,019 working professionals in September.

As more baby boomers put off retirement, millennials and Gen Xers are finding it harder to move up into middle- and higher-level jobs, according to a USA TODAY/LinkedIn survey and interviews with recruiters.

Partly as a result, many younger workers are job-hopping as they seek bigger titles and higher pay. That’s making it tougher for companies to hold onto promising employees and hurting their businesses in some cases, the survey shows.

“This is the first time ever that five different generations are in America’s workforce at the same time, from Gen Z-ers up to baby boomers,” says LinkedIn career expert Blair Decembrele. “It’s no surprise that there are some growing pains.”

To be sure, boomers (age 54-74) bring knowledge and experienceto the workplace, and many companies are trying to coax them into staying on as they struggle to find workers amid unemployment that’s at a 50-year low. Yet their prevalence in the labor force is tamping down the economy’s overall productivity, according to a study by Moody’s Analytics. That’s likely because of their reluctance to adopt new technology, the study says. .

Forty-one percent of millennials—and 30% of all adults—said they’ve found it difficult to move up in their fields because boomers are waiting longer to retire, according to a USA TODAY/LinkedIn survey of 1,019 working professionals in September.

“That’s what I’m hearing a lot,” says Jeanne Branthover, co-head and managing partner of executive search firm DHR International’s New York office. Job seekers “are happy with the company but they’re being blocked by the person above them.”

Nearly a quarter of workers surveyed by USA TODAY/LinkedIn changed jobs in the last 12 months and 30% are planning to do so in the next year. A survey by Jobvite, a recruiting site, found that 61% of employees rank career growth opportunities as the top factor when seeking a new job.

Lauren Jablonski, 36, of Franklin Square, New York, worked as a substitute teacher and teacher’s aide at a Long Island elementary school for a couple of years. Although she has a Master’s in education, she couldn’t get promoted because teachers in their 50s with tenure had no plans to retire.

“It was extremely frustrating when you get to work every day and you’re giving it your all and you still can’t get to that next level,” Jablonski says. She left teaching several years ago and since has worked as a marketing manager, editor and martial arts instructor.

Silvia Fabela, 35, who lives in Washington D.C., loved her two jobs promoting workers’ rights at unions for nine years. She left to work at a nonprofit a couple of years ago to broaden her experience, but also because there was limited opportunity for a promotion at the unions over the longer term, though she’s open to returning to the field at some point. The median age of workers at labor union offices is 51.4, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Noting that millennials (ages 24-38) get blamed for not spending more to bolster the economy, she says, “We’re not getting promoted and not making enough money.”

Boomers living, working longer.

Workers age 55 and over have comprised an eye-popping 56% of all job gains so far this year, with those 65 and over making up the lion’s share of that figure, according to BLS. In October, 20.4% of Americans 65 and older were working or looking for jobs, up from 12.4% in 1999 and the largest portion since 1961. While some of those were returning to the workforce after hanging it up, many simply have put off retirement, says Susan Weinstock, vice president of financial resiliency for AARP, a nonprofit that lobbies for the interests of middle-aged and elderly people.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The link (URL) to the original article is unavailable and has been removed.]