For companies, understanding Millennials and Gen Z workers is more and more vital by the day. But just how similar—or different—are these two groups, especially in their views on employment and employers?
Millennials, born between 1981 and 1995, and are expected to comprise roughly half of the global workforce by 2020—and 75% of it by 2030. This group has been long called the Boomerang Generation, a moniker that still fits—a startling 50% of young Millennials still plan to move back home with their parents after college, according to a study by TD Ameritrade.
Technological changes, economic uncertainty, and political and social discord have left Millennials feeling like a "generation disrupted," according to Deloitte's Millennial Survey 2019. They believe business is underdelivering on enhancing employees' livelihoods—and a stunning 49% of Millennials surveyed said that given the choice, they would quit their current job within the next two years, a rise from 38% in a similar study just two years ago.
Gen Zers, on the other hand, are pragmatic optimists. Born between 1996 and 2010, these independent and realistic go-getters are financially independent, and hyper-focused on earning. A recent study by workplace coaching provider Inside Out Development found that a whopping 69% of Gen Z would prefer a stable job over one they are passionate about.
Another marked contrast between Millennials and Gen Z is the latter's fearlessness of failure. More than 80% of Gen Zers surveyed by EY said they believe that embracing failure on a project can only help them to become better innovators, something that is resoundingly important to this generation of self-starters. The Google philosophy has taken hold of this generation—“Never fail to fail.”
