Generation Z: Almost half consider a change of job this year

Almost every second employee from the so -called generation Z is considering changing the employer this year. This is the result of a Forsa survey carried out on behalf of the Xing career network to change the change of employees. The expectations of people to their employers and the reasons for changing jobs differ significantly from generation to generation.

According to the survey, the willingness to change is particularly pronounced among younger employees: Although many workers from the “Generation Z” – this are the years from 1997 to 2012 – have so far been looking back on a short professional career, more than half (54 percent) has already changed the employer.

And they are not averse to other changes either: Almost half (48 percent) can imagine changing employers in the current year. Eleven percent even plan this in concrete terms.

While the values ​​under “Millennials” – i.e. the years 1981 to 1996 – look similar, in the “Generation X” with the years 1965 to 1980, on the other hand, only about every third employee is willing to change. It is 15 percent for the “boomers”. About one tenth of them (11 percent) also spent the entire working life at the same company.

“At the beginning of professional life, the salary jumps can still be significant when changing the job, which is why younger people have a strong incentive to change,” says Xing working market expert Julian Stahl.

There are also considerable differences between the generations when it comes to saying goodbye to the current company: While older vintages state that the employer primarily wants to leave with a direct manager because of the dissatisfaction, especially money counts for younger workers. 45 percent of the “Generation Z” surveyed named a too low salary as a decisive factor for a job change.

“The narrative that younger people are primarily looking for a meaningful activity does not coincide with our data,” said Stahl. “This is a cliché. Our survey results show that younger factors such as the salary decide.”

The generations are largely agreed in their expectations of potential new employers: the topic of job security is far ahead, temporary employment contracts are a clear knockout criterion for many in search of a new work regardless of the age of the respondents.

Overall, however, the willingness to change in relation to previous years remains relatively constant in all generations. Across all age groups, about one in three employees is currently open to a new job or has already initiated concrete steps. This is despite the fact that the labor market situation for employees deteriorates and decreased the number of vacancies in the past year, as the job survey of the Institute for Labor Market and Vocational Research shows.

“Apparently, many people in Germany have the feeling that they are not personally affected by the weak economic development in the country and are relatively optimistic about their individual situation,” says Stahl.