PayScale Inc., creator of the largest database of individual compensation profiles in the world, and Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and management consulting company, recently released “Gen Y on the Job,” a comprehensive study on the state of the Gen Y worker ages 18 to 29.
Study results, which were presented in an interactive format, revealed the state of the Gen Y worker is generally bleak as the economy is forcing many Gen Y workers to work retail jobs instead of professional ones. The three lowest paying jobs (cashier at $17,700; barista at $19,000; and hotel, motel, or resort desk clerk at $$19,200 median annual salary) are extremely common among Gen Y workers.
State of the Gen Y worker study results also reveal more than 63 percent of Gen Y workers hold a bachelor’s degree, but the most commonly reported jobs for Gen Y workers don’t necessarily require a college degree, a strong indicator of the Gen Y underemployment issue. Gen Y workers are more likely to hold the following positions than other U.S. workers: merchandise displayer (5.36x more likely); clothing sales representative (4.63x more likely); and cell phone sales representative (4.03x more likely).
Other state of the Gen Y worker study results include:
- Gen Y workers prefer working in smaller firms, with 47 percent working in companies with fewer than 100 employees and 30 percent working in companies with 100 to 1,500 employees.
- The top five ranked companies based on high job satisfaction, low stress levels, meaningfulness of job, and schedule flexibility among other characters are all technology companies, with Qualcomm receiving the highest marks followed by Google, Medtronic, Intel, and Microsoft, respectively.
- The five most commonly reported job skills for Gen Y workers are Tableau software, blogging, social media optimization, press releases, and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) analysis.
- Seattle is the best large metro area for Gen Y workers due to strong wage growth, high median pay for Gen Y workers, and a strong presence of tech firms.
Click here to see the PayScale Inc. and Millennial Branding study results in detail.
Do you agree that the state of the Gen Y worker is generally bleak? Let us know your opinion in the comment section.
