A study by accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found only 16 percent of the city's employees intend to change jobs over the next 12 months — a more than 50 percent drop year-on-year.

Respondents cited job security concerns as the reason for the reluctance to change employment.

PwC revealed these findings in its fifth annual survey on the hopes and fears of workers, which was published on Thursday.

The firm polled more than 1,050 people in Hong Kong as part of its global study involving around 50,000 respondents.

It also found more than 40 percent of the SAR's workforce see their skills becoming irrelevant in the next three years, and over half saying they have less control over how technology affects their work.

"If you look at the industry here in Hong Kong for the past several years, many large and medium-sized organisations have gone through transformations... the roles of the workforce are naturally changing. They had to work their existing responsibilities in some cases and also take on a new responsibility that they need to go through," said Michael Cheng, Workforce Lead Partner at the firm.

"Because of natural transformation, it creates a sense of lack of security... that metric specifically there is a reflection of people wanting to have a little more stability and more predictability of what they are going to do, versus going through the transformations that are happening out there," he added.

The study also found workers are experiencing varying sentiments towards AI despite over 60 percent of employees using it at work.

Around 60 percent of them expressed excitement and curiosity towards the burgeoning technology, while almost 40 percent confessed to being confused and worried about AI.

"A lot of that sentiment can be a reflection of the job market and the concern about replacement of tasks. [Gen Z] are curious and excited and optimistic about the future, given they know there will be a demand for the AI skills they possess," said Cheng.