Intergenerational Views on the Job Market (Part One)

Author’s Note: This is one of a two-part series on how generations are viewing the job market and what you can do to ensure you are well prepared for whatever comes.

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The US job market has enjoyed one of the longest periods of prosperity despite many economic challenges. However, anxiety about job security is on the rise according to research done by Joblist.com:

“The job market remained relatively stable in Q2 despite growing concerns about the broader health of the economy. Job growth continues to be strong, and the unemployment rate is holding steady at 3.6% – its lowest rate since January 2020. Yet, as consumers and businesses grapple with inflation, rising interest rates, continued supply chain and COVID-19 disruptions, many worry that a recession is around the corner. Although the job market has proven largely resilient up until this point, the future outlook appears increasingly uncertain.”

The research we did to help us understand how generations are viewing the job market will uncover three main points:

1. How concerned are generations about being laid off in the next 12 months?
2. What game plans do generations have if they are laid off?
3. What advice would members of different generations give to survive a layoff?

Job market outlook

Our survey was conducted using HubUX and included video questions instead of text-based open ends. These video open ends along with using Research Defender’s screening API ensured we were talking to real humans.

Gen Z and Millennials are significantly more concerned that they’ll be laid off in the next 12 months than Gen X and Boomers.

Q7. How concerned are you that you may be laid off in the next 12 months?  by Q1. What is your age?

	Gen Z	Millennial	Gen X	Boomer
I am not concerned at all	43%	33%	55%	81%
I am somewhat concerned	30%	40%	32%	8%
I am very concerned	26%	27%	14%	11%

Key takeaways

Below are a few video responses that contain messaging we heard from their respective generational cohorts.

Gen Z & Millennials	Gen X & Boomers

Gen Z & Millenials

Let’s break it down for Gen Z & Millennials. There are two primary concerns that repeatedly surfaced:

1. They are very concerned that employers will have economic headwinds because of increased interest rates and gas prices which will cause companies to lay people off.
2. These economic headwinds will result in job opportunities drying up. This is especially concerning for those who are about to graduate and enter the workforce as they are carrying a large amount of debt.

Gen X & Boomers

Now, let’s focus on the older generational cohorts, Gen X & Boomers:

1. Since Covid, more people are working for themselves or just retiring. This is creating a hiring void for employers which is increasing job opportunities.
2. Companies are busier than ever coming out of Covid which will continue to drive their need to hire.
3. Public sector jobs like teaching will continue to be in demand despite any economic headwinds.

What about employers?

Our sample also included 85 employers. These are individuals who are either operators or responsible for staffing in their firm.

If you are an employer, I’m sure the recent quote from Federal Chair Jerome Powell will resonate with you, “You have two job vacancies essentially for every person actively seeking a job, and that has led to a real imbalance in wage negotiating.” The imbalance of jobs to available employees has led to the most competitive job market I’ve seen in my 25-year career.

However, the ever-increasing employee expectations are simply not sustainable for companies that need to achieve a profit.

Even one of the best-performing companies, Netflix, is struggling to be compliant with their DE&I mandates from LGBTQ employees.

In January of 2022, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group excluded Netflix from their Corporate Equality Index. “The Human Rights Campaign suspended the streaming giant’s CEI score this year in connection with the company’s handling of Dave Chappelle’s 2021 special The Closer.”

Prior to being removed from the index, Netflix scored a perfect 100.

If you have not heard, The Closer was a 2021 stand-up comedy special performed by Dave Chappelle for Netflix. It included, according to Wikipedia, “jokes about the discrimination against the African American community relative to the discrimination against the LGBTQ community. The special received a mixed reception from critics while some LGBTQ groups called for the special’s removal from the service and some Netflix employees criticized and protested Chappelle’s jokes about the transgender community. Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos repeatedly defended the special as freedom of artistic expression.”

If you have followed Netflix’s ads and statements, they had literally done everything correct. However, their employees took a very different stance than Netflix on this one point which had a huge market impact on employee retention and, you can argue, company performance.

Will the employee-first trend flip?

This employee-first market pressure is requiring companies to spend as much time and treasure on employee experience as they do on customer experience. Examples are a four-day work week, less real-time availability of key staff, and overall less accountability.

However, if there is a job correction, our data shows that employers believe a slowdown in the job market will have some positive outcomes primarily centered around their ability to meet the demands of employees:

• Employees will have less ability to demand benefits, working conditions, etc.
• Salaries will stabilize
• Less or no “sign-on bonuses”
• Less employee turnover as employees decide not to change jobs based on job stability

 

As of July 2022, many companies have announced job cuts including Tesla, JPMorgan Chase, Redfin, Coinbase, and Netflix which just announced a second round of layoffs to include ~300 people.

Outcome

Today, every brand is catering to you, trying to get your attention, and trying to make you feel important. This applies equally if you are a potential consumer or a potential employee.

For those that have never experienced a competitive job market, the thought of a more balanced power base between employees and employers is a scary proposition.

However, older generations have a positive outlook on both the economy and the job market. I believe this is because they’ve lived through hard times. And the current picture of “hard times” is still better than most of the last 30 years.

In the next installment we will address:

1. What gameplans do generations have if they are laid off?
2. What advice would members of different generations give to survive a layoff?

If you would like to learn more about this research or about how you can use HubUX to shorten timelines and save money, you can find me on any social platform or email me directly.

Happy researching! 😊