According to a July 2019 FlexJobs survey, which included more than 1,600 Millennials, travel is a popular motivator for why Millennials work. Sixty-three percent of millennials say the desire to travel is their primary reason to work, second only to paying for basic necessities (83%) and well ahead of more traditional reasons for working, such as saving for retirement (58%) and paying off debt (51%).
Work-life balance (81%) took the top spot for factors Millennials consider when evaluating job prospects, slightly ahead of salary (79%), and well ahead of health insurance (41%), 401k benefits (35%) and paid maternity/paternity leave (18%).
“According to our survey, Millennials are more likely than older workers to quit jobs that do not offer work flexibility, and they’re more willing to give up important benefits, like vacation time, for the option to work from home. It’s clear that Millennials place a high value on work flexibility,” said Sara Sutton, founder and CEO of FlexJobs, in a written statement.
Additional findings about Millennials and flexible work include:
- Flexible work preferences: Telecommuting 100 percent of the time (74%) was the top choice of flexible work arrangements for Millennials, followed closely by flexible schedule jobs (73%), with part-time (43%) and freelancing (38%) jobs considerably less desirable.
- Productivity: Sixty-six percent of Millennials say they would be more productive working from a home office than in a traditional office.
- Social media for job searching: Twenty percent of Millennials don’t use social media like LinkedIn or Facebook in their job search.
Work Differences Between Gen X and Millennials
- Quitting jobs: Millennials are more likely than Gen Xers to leave a job because of flexible work issues. Seventy-one percent of Millennials have considered leaving a job because it did not offer flexible work arrangements, compared to 66 percent of Gen Xers
- Trade-offs for remote work: Millennials are much more willing to give up some vacation time (28%) in exchange for the opportunity to work remotely, compared to 19 percent of Gen Xers who reported the same thing
- Negotiating work flexibility: Gen Xers are more competent at negotiating work flexibility with their employers, experiencing a 61 percent success rate, while Millennials report a 53 percent success rate.
- Encountering job scams: Millennials know more people (28%) who have been scammed while looking for a job online versus only 20 percent of Gen Xers who report knowing someone who has been scammed.
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