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Generation Y by the Numbers

Tags: Job, Generation Y, Yahoo! Inc., HotJobs, Total Cash Compensation, Recruitment & Selection, Professional Development, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Career, BNET Editorial, Millennials, Gen Y, salary, compensation

Hiring managers say millennials are asking more from their workplaces and employers than any previous generation: They want better pay and perks, more flexibility in their schedules, and more support from managers. But do these anecdotal reports really represent a whole generation? We dug into data gathered by Robert Half International and PayScale to find out.

Popular Millennial Jobs and Corresponding Salaries

Source: Payscale Inc.

Source: Payscale Inc.

*Median Total Cash Compensation is what a typical employee in the given position earned in 2007. Fifty percent of employees who are in the same age group and have the same job title make more than this amount, while 50 percent of them make less. Total Cash Compensation is base salary combined with bonuses, commissions, profit sharing, and other forms of cash earnings. It does not include equity (stock) compensation.

Career Expectations

Compared to previous generations, millennials expect to have:

More frequent job/career changes 15%
Greater focus on personal/family life 12%
More knowledge of advanced technology 10%
More education 9%

Source: What Millennial Workers Want: How to Attract and Retain Gen Y Employees, Robert Half International and Yahoo! HotJobs

Workplace Attire

How millennials want to dress on the job:

Business casual 41%
Sneakers and jeans 27%
A mix, depending on the situation 26%
Business attire 4%

Source: What Millennial Workers Want: How to Attract and Retain Gen Y Employees, Robert Half International and Yahoo! HotJobs

Job Considerations

Millennial respondents ranked the following job considerations on a 1-to-10 scale, with 10 being most important and 1 being least important:

Salary 9.05
Benefits (health insurance, 401(k), etc.) 8.86
Opportunities for career growth/advancement 8.74
Company’s location 8.44
Company’s leadership 7.95
Company’s reputation/brand recognition 7.56
Job title 7.19
In-house training programs 6.95
Tuition reimbursement programs 6.44
Diversity of the company’s staff 6.07
Company’s charitable/philanthropic efforts 6.06

Source: What Millennial Workers Want: How to Attract and Retain Gen Y Employees, Robert Half International and Yahoo! HotJobs

Work Environment

Millennial respondents ranked the following aspects of their work environments on a 1-to-10 scale, with 10 being most important and 1 being least important:

Working with a manager I can respect and learn from 8.74
Working with people I enjoy 8.69
Having work/life balance 8.63
Having a short commute 7.55
Working for a socially responsible company 7.42
Having a nice office space 7.14
Working with state-of-the-art technology 6.89

Source: What Millennial Workers Want: How to Attract and Retain Gen Y Employees, Robert Half International and Yahoo! HotJobs

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  •  
    deenie05/20/08 Report as spam
    1

    MILLENIALS NOT SO DIFFERENT

    I'm just a little astonished that this is "news".
    If we're really trying to understand the differences between Gen X, y and boomers, then why would Robert Half and Yahoo not study and post the same data for those two populations.
    The upshot is that the things that they rank in importance are are pretty consistent with what I would say (as a Gen X worker).

  •  
    insidesales05/21/08 Report as spam
    2

    It's definitely a balance

    To wit: The world has changed, corporate America, deal with it.

    The backlash had to happen, especially here in America. America is now two or three generations removed from World War II, the modern and post-modern ages.

    But if there's one lesson business teaches it's this: The cream rises to the top. Whether it's employees, products, or brands, there is too much exposure now to not be evaluated. It's inevitable; you're either going to sink or swim, regardless of how old you are.

    -Steven R. Watts
    http://www.insidesales.com

  •  
    dpekin@...05/27/08 Report as spam
    3

    well, duh

    People worked 12, 14, 16 hour days, with a 1/2 day on Saturdays until the labor unions made a 40 hour work week the norm. Do you really think this 'expectation leap' is any different?

    The younger generation of workers has higher expectations from management because each of the previous generations has demanded (or market forces have demanded) the kinds of perks, salary, diversity, and flexibility that is now the base 'norm' of expectation. It doesn't just belong to the next generation - I'm from the baby boomer generation and I've evolved with it - I expect all of this too.

    We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before, expectations included. Just because YOU didn't get a two week vacation in your first year with flex time and a home office when you were 24 years old, is no reason to begrudge the current 24 year olds. We don't work on crab boats where the 'new kid' always gets the crappiest job, (wait a minute while I cry in my beer). Now, any smart manager and company will measure their employees (and pay them accordingly) by what they actually DELIVER, not by hours of face time. Seniority alone isn't enough - it's performance that should matter.

    I agree with the other comment - cream does rise to the top - that's true for employers as well as employees of any age.

  •  
    Dangrad05/30/08 Report as spam
    4

    RE: Generation Y by the Numbers

    I'd say we bring more to the table because we're more in tune with technology.

  •  
    dna.zip06/13/08 Report as spam
    5

    Globalization impact on Gen Y expectations

    Gen Y's greater dependency on social networking should translate into greater synergy in team productivity and that their technology adeptness could mean that they'll more readily accept and drive change within organizations to help maintain a firm's relevance in dynamic markets.
    A notable challenge will be their eventual dramatic adjustment from the value they perceive about themselves to the economic reality of supply and demand and globalization. There are many of them (50% more than the previous generation of workers) plus many others arising around the world (Have you been to Asia recently?) Add in the effects of globalization that creates more talent abroad, and one might expect many firms to increasingly compare the opportunity costs of Gen Y's expectations to that of hiring from the increasingly larger but relatively cheap talent pool from emerging economies.

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