Press
GenZ differs greatly from its predecessors, including in terms of what they expect from their employers. However, what they value is surprising to many.
Vienna – As far as generations are concerned, a lot is happening in society at the moment. After all, the boomer generation will soon be pension and the demographics in Germany are getting older and older. In many ways, the younger generation differs significantly from its predecessors. Critics therefore fear that Generation Z is endangering the standard of living. Austrian radio asked around 30,000 people between the ages of 16 and 25 about various topics – GenZ has its own priorities, especially in professional life.
Who belongs to GenZ?
Generation Z (GenZ for short) includes those born between 1995 and 2009. Some of the teenagers and young adults already know the job market and have their own requirements for employers. However, most people from GenZ will enter the job market in the next few years.
GenZ on the job market: What is very important for the young generation – and what is not
When it comes to work, the teenagers and young adults were asked a total of eleven questions. The participants had four possible answers as to how important something was to them: very, quite a bit, a little and not at all. The results of three questions are particularly striking, as well over half of the people surveyed answered very. These things are particularly important to GenZ in their working lives:
- Doing something meaningful (77 percent)
- A secure job (74 percent)
- Enough free time outside of work (65 percent)
GenZ has already had to endure several crises such as the Corona pandemic and the Ukraine War experience, the wishes for their professional life are hardly surprising. What is surprising, however, are the things that are considered very important by significantly fewer participants. This includes, among other things, the desire to achieve as much as possible (31 percent). Not everyone can understand this, for example the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry believes that the younger generation’s attitude to work needs to change.
Priorities for young workers: For many, salary and home office are secondary
Surprisingly few participants also consider home office (31 percent) and the four-day week (29 percent) to be very important. Many companies rely on home office and often offer it in order to be attractive to young employees. Young employees are said to demand good working conditions, and according to one economist, everyone could learn a thing or two from GenZ’s work-life balance.
Salary is also not the top priority for GenZ – quite the opposite. Not even half of those surveyed (41 percent) consider a high income to be very important. Good opportunities for advancement are also hardly more important to participants (43 percent). In a YouGov survey, however, salary was the top priority for young employees.
In addition to questions about their professional lives, the adolescents and young adults were also asked questions about other areas of life. All answers were collected in the youth study “Inside GenZ“ published by ORF. (kiba)
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