Survey reveals tough job market for Gen Z grads due to employer preferences

WASHINGTON (TND) — A recent survey found nearly 40% of employers avoid hiring recent college graduates in favor of older employees.

Survey reveals tough job market for Gen Z grads due to employer preferences (TND)

According to Intelligent.com, Gen Z college graduates are struggling with many aspects of professional life.

Their survey of 800 U.S. managers, directors, and executives who are involved in hiring, found these key results:

38% of employers avoid hiring recent college graduates in favor of older employees

1 in 5 employers have had a recent college graduate bring a parent to a job interview

58% say recent college graduates are unprepared for the workforce

Nearly half of employers have had to fire a recent college graduate

Hexbear2,

First career job I had, I was 26, and the next youngest employee was over 50. I had a co-worker who was 70. This is such a fucked state of affairs. We should all be retiring by about 55-60.

Sgt_choke_n_stroke,

This reads like those shitty china articles where the nation’s youth are unemployed

ShimmeringKoi,
@ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net avatar

The employer preferences:

https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/25d463a9-8a07-46f0-91ae-743995d94c95.png

shalafi,

38% of employers avoid hiring recent college graduates in favor of older employees

My god y’all are entitled little bitches.

“They’re hiring people with life and professional experience vs. ME! I got a piece of paper and the world owes me all the things!”

Yes, generally speaking, GenZ has it worst of all. They got it worse than the Boomers, GenX (me) and the Millennials. No doubt.

But maybe the constant whining and bitching has something to do with being a pain in the ass to employ?

My small employer is wildly liberal (and successful!), not good enough for GenZ. Not HR, but I onboard all the new people and I can tell who will last and who won’t given their age.

magnetosphere, (edited )
@magnetosphere@kbin.social avatar

People invest insane amounts of money in a college degree. After spending years to earn that “piece of paper”, hoping for a decent job in return isn’t entitlement.

These are people who are looking for an opportunity to earn money; they’re not expecting a handout.

GBU_28,

Huh? The degree is a gamble. You hedge the bet by getting good grades, networking, and leading your industry on needed skills. If you don’t graduate with attractive skills, you attended a social club.

the_q,

You didn’t need to tell us your were Gen x… You guys are a hip replacement away from being boomers.

Skates,

A genx with a hip replacement will still be a genx, but with now less hip pains. Do you think… Hips somehow… Relate to age?

Is this a “count the rings thing” taught to genz now? Is Shakira some sort of prophet for you guys, because of “hips don’t lie”?

Peppycito,

And you guys are just 30 years of working for a living away from the same fate. Welcome to the club.

aaaaaaadjsf,
@aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net avatar

1 in 5 employers have had a recent college graduate bring a parent to a job interview

Who the hell does that? Even by highschool kids should be sorting out their life affairs independent of their parents.

Though the reason behind recent graduates getting looked over is simple. There are a lot of people on the job market with experience, especially in industries like tech with the tech bubble bursting (probably the worst time to graduate in tech is now), so recent graduates have to compete with experienced workers. And the experienced worker will win almost every time. Similar happened after 2008 to recent millenial graduates, it’s when the whole “millenials are lazy/immature” thing kicked off. It’s seems to be a cycle. In a decades time/when the next major global economic event takes place, experienced Gen Z workers will be getting all the job offers, and the next generation to graduate will get the short end of the stick.

magnetosphere,
@magnetosphere@kbin.social avatar

I’ve never been in a position to make hiring decisions, and probably never will. If I ever am, though, an interviewee being interviewed with a parent would be a HUGE red flag (unless there was an obvious medical reason).

If the parent was just there for moral support and stayed in the lobby, fine. Unusual, but fine.

420blazeit69,

The “1 in 5” probably makes it sound way more prevalent than it actually is.

  • Say you have 5 companies that interviewed 200 people each in the recent past
  • 1 candidate had a parent come to their interview (which could mean “driving them to the interview and waiting in the lobby,” which is still weird but nowhere near the connotation of “sat in and listened to interview questions”)
  • 1 in 5 companies will report they’ve had a parent come to an interview, even though 0.1% of candidates brought a parent
Septimaeus, (edited )

Let’s stop this idiotic hazing ritual. 15 years ago I was a recent grad and people were saying similar stuff. These attitudes kept people my age out of many workplaces. It was shortsighted.

I was rejected many times before I got my first job, and managers in my first roles used my age against me a lot, especially when I didn’t stay in my lane. Finally a company removed my leash and treated me as an opportunity rather than a threat, and they got a big return on that investment, but it took years to find a place like that.

We were acquired and I’m doing other stuff now, but when I see my products in the wild, I sometimes wonder about all those hiring managers who couldn’t see past my age. Did they ever learn that unreplaceable means unpromotable? Did they ever learn to have a bench? What would we have built together if they weren’t so afraid of change?

Of course this is just one story, and profit isn’t a proper motive for doing what’s right. But those who don’t care that ageism is bad for society should at least consider that it’s bad for business and their careers.

GuyMcGuy,

The thing is people come and go through this phase of life relatively briefly. Then it’s not their problem anymore. Nobody is in it long enough to care to change it.

Septimaeus, (edited )

Maybe so, but if our generation knows what it’s like to find the ladders pulled up, and we don’t care enough to put them back for the younger people behind us, who will?

M500,

There are plenty of millennials looking for work. If I could hire someone with work experience or something with no experience, the choice is obvious.

Additionally, I have heard complaints about gen z from millennials and older. Even in my very very small business, gen z workers have been very unreliable.

The work they do is to make things, they are paid for the things they make. They are paid well above the market rate. Like significantly higher, but they still disappear for a month or two at a time without warning and don’t respond to messages.

There is always a final exam or family emergency. I don’t mind if they take time off, but c’mon. How many finals exams can you have per year.

So due to their lack of communication I often need to find people to replace them. Millennial workers are hard working and produce high quality work. They often over communicate.

So this is my perspective on the issue.

I do have some very good gen z workers and some bad millennial workers, but that is the exception.

aaaaaaadjsf,
@aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net avatar

So the millenial workers have had their spirits crushed, backs broken and expectations subverted to the point they’re considered “hard workers” now. I still remember when millenials were the ones considered lazy bums. Will only be another decade before gen Z become the “hard workers” and the next generation (I think it’s generation alpha) will be the “unreliable” ones. The cycle repeats infinitely under the current mode of production.

Peppycito,

Yes. That’s called “climbing the ladder” or “having your spirits crushed”, same thing.

Old people don’t like when young people think they can start halfway up the ladder. It takes a few years before newbies learn that they don’t know everything and stop being insufferable pricks.

OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe,

With 4 college semesters (two standard and two accelerated summer sessions) I’d say they could probably have a final exam at least once every 3 months.

I think it’s best we evaluate workers as individuals and leave ALL generational labeling out of it.

wildginger,

I remember this exact shite about millennials, a decade ago.

I will hear this exact same trite bullshit in a decade about the new generation.

It was made up bullshit then, its made up bullshit now. Put it back up your ass where you got it

fidodo,

College is practically a full time job so if you’re juggling classes and work sometimes classes take precedent. Final exam may be a lie, but being overwhelmed by the combined workload isn’t. Poor communication just comes with being young and figuring stuff out.

bazingabrain,
@bazingabrain@hexbear.net avatar

Youre expecting a lemmy user to actually learn???

xilliah,

I’m a millennial and it sounds just like me and the majority of people I know. A friend of mine just gave up during this Christmas because she wasn’t feeling well and her manager kept pressuring her and making her feel guilty. I can tell you my friend is a nice and honest woman, but this just scared her and made it even harder to return. She’s completely freaking out now and started drinking and it takes me a lot of effort to support her.

I’ve been there myself too. Loved my job. Perfect track record for a year. Then suddenly for a day I had 5 bosses, each giving me conflicting orders. I clearly communicated multiple times that it doesn’t work and that I need one boss. I’m sure that if they would’ve spoken to me as a human being that I would’ve continued. I cared and they didn’t.

But ya then the next day I was ready to go but at my door this powerful dread came over me and I simply froze. And then you just start feeling worse due to guilt and so on and it becomes harder to overcome that barrier. After a month I managed to finally overcome my fear and return to the same job with the same people! I’m still proud of that. Unfortunately there was a lingering resentment from my manager’s side. I decided to move and do something else, eventhough I loved that job and I was good at it.

It’s not a comment on you, because I wasn’t there. But in all the situations this happened to my friends and me it was always due to a lack of half decent communication. One could argue that a manager should be good at listening.

GBU_28,

How could anyone outwork a millennial? If you shower us with praise we will literally die at our desk

ProfessorOwl_PhD,
@ProfessorOwl_PhD@hexbear.net avatar

There is always a final exam […] How many finals exams can you have per year.

I mean not every course has the same structure but I had about 12 per year.

bigbluealien,
@bigbluealien@kbin.social avatar

"Small survey finds majority of employers looking for fresh graduates, though as would be expected most graduates need to develop professional skills. Sometimes weird people turn up to interviews, which is sad funny, and every now and then you hire someone who's a bad fit". This is normal

OpenStars,
@OpenStars@startrek.website avatar

It is a sad fact that for-profit universities and colleges sometimes hand out degrees like candy, making them not worth the paper they are printed on. In essence they trade on their past reputations, hoping that nobody will notice. Well, people noticed. Students, after they start interviewing, often BEG their professors to actually teach them what they need to know. But they cannot, b/c, and I cannot state this hard enough, the purpose of a for-profit education system is not to teach, but to… can you guess what I am about to say… say it with me now… “just make profits”.

Igotz80HDnImWinning,

*Boomers and older GenX with outdated value systems and brains addled by leaded gasoline are still in power but shouldn’t be

FIFY!

SpookyUnderwear,

Who decides what is or is not an “outdated valued system”?

leopardboy,
@leopardboy@midwest.social avatar

I think every single generation does that when they’re young. They freak out the old folks. Eventually they become the old folks, and then younger generations are freaking them out.

It’s like we forget how the boomers were criticized for their rock-n-roll music (huge amounts of panic). We forget that Gen X’ers were supposed to be a bunch of disaffected slackers. Rinse. Repeat.

It’s a choice to participate in the moral panic du jour, you know. I think Gen Z will end up being just fine, just like everyone else.

FuckyWucky,

Bullshit, they don’t want to hire because the economy is in the shitter. Just in 2021, corps were hiring college graduates like crazy.

ValueSubtracted,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

So the respondents were lying?

FuckyWucky,

They are employers. If they say it’s because of the economy, it’ll fuck up the stonks further because the whole thing is vibes based.

They are known to lie. See Target shoplifting claims which turned out to be bullshit.

ValueSubtracted,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

Thank goodness we have you to tell us what’s real.

FuckyWucky, (edited )

Thank you, I’m so glad we have employers telling us the reason why they are not hiring is because they hate zoomers even though they also know zoomers will be an important market to sell their commodities to, which they can’t buy without a job.

https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/bc755057-5171-4af0-9f51-7568bc4af9e5.png

Zorque,

If they cared about giving their employees enough money to buy extra things wages wouldn't have stagnated for decades.

ShimmeringKoi,
@ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net avatar

Consider the motivations of one internet commenter to lie, then weigh that against the motivations of an entire economic system predicated on finding excuses to underpay your labor force.

420blazeit69,

Thank goodness we have people willing to organically repeat what companies say with zero analysis, we don’t get enough of that in every major media outlet

TeddyKila,

smuglord

wildginger,

Probably, yeah, its a survey with no stakes asking people to give unverified confirmation of biases and stereotypes that they likely want to support and proliferate.

Weird to take it without a pillar of salt.

ValueSubtracted,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

Seems to me that assuming it’s a flawed survey for no real reason is a confirmation of biases in and of itself…

ShimmeringKoi,
@ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net avatar

As opposed to assuming it’s flawless, which is the Smart and Unbiased thing to doso-true

wildginger,

You mean, beside the fact that I read almost this exact same survey a decade ago, saying almost the exact same thing about millenials? A thing proven to be untrue by the simple passage of time?

Or beside the long history going back to literal documents from the roman empire of older people calling the younger generation lazy, incompetent, and unfit to fill the shoes of the current “of age” generation? Despite this trend being wrong each and every time?

Or beside the fact that the survey has literally no way to back up its data as more than nonsense hearsay, and trusting it at all is inherently questionable?

Yeah man, Im the one with biases. Surely. No other explanation.

420blazeit69,

It’s impossible to create a survey that transmits people’s actual thoughts directly to you. Every single survey, ever, has flaws and biases. The game is figuring out the bias, how significant it is, and if you can get anything useful out of the results.

bazingabrain,
@bazingabrain@hexbear.net avatar

Are you geniunely trying to be an asshole? Curious, keep me posted.

KazuyaDarklight,
@KazuyaDarklight@lemmy.world avatar

I’ll acknowledge that 1-in-5 bring parents bit is pretty wild to me as I’m assuming it was more than just a ride.

RandomWalker,

1-in-5 of the survey respondents say they’ve seen a recent grad bring in a parent. That doesn’t mean 1-in-5 bring parents.

wildginger,

That doesnt even mean anyone brought in parents. Thats an easy lie that multiple managers Ive worked for would gleefully tell

KazuyaDarklight,
@KazuyaDarklight@lemmy.world avatar

What’s the point of that lie though?

wildginger,

Reinforcing stereotypes they believe are true despite lack of evidence.

Like how these same people swore up and down that millenials were lazy, greedy, worthless members of society not 10 years prior. Wasnt true then, isnt true now, but I spent my working years getting an earful of “examples” of why millenials were awful workers.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod,
@Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social avatar

I've interviewed more than five Gen Zers and none of them brought their parents

PM_Your_Nudes_Please,

That doesn’t mean 1-in-5 bring parents. It means 1-in-5 interviewers have seen someone bring in a parent. If an interviewer has 500 interviews and 1 brings in a parent, that interviewer is one of the five who has seen a parent at an interview. Even though it was only 1 in 500 interviews for them, they’re still 1-in-5 interviewers.

Hell, it could even be the same fucking parent at every interview, if it’s a small enough industry. Maybe that same college grad applied to all of the local jobs in the industry (because of course they did; it’s what they studied for) and so all the interviewers in that part of the industry have seen a parent at an interview. It’s still only the 1 parent, but all of the interviewers in the area have seen them, so they all report that they’ve seen a recent college grad bring a parent.

bl4ckblooc,

Companies: won’t hire college graduates Also Companies: “College graduates aren’t prepared for the workforce”

Szymon,

Also companies: you need to be a college graduate

Colleges: you give me money and I give you a piece of paper. You can get your education from YouTube.

Peppycito,

You can get your education from YouTube.

That right there is a big part of the problem. Watching someone do something is not the same as knowing how to do that thing yourself. Especially when the youtuber is just some fuckup selling TV dinners.

GBU_28, (edited )

Both those clauses are in agreement…

Edit for the silly gooses:

Not hiring young folks and believing young folks aren’t prepared to be hired is consistent.

bouh,

But then why forcing them to work at all?

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