Young job seekers entering the workforce amid inflation are demanding stability

Handshake, a networking platform for college students, surveyed 1,400 recent college grads and current seniors and inquired about their highest job search priority. 73% responded saying it is ‘stability’. Less than half of the participants stated ‘working for a known brand’ as one of their job search priorities.

Christine Cruzvergara, the head of education strategy for Handshake, describes the shift she sees today, “In the past, students were often looking for location, they were looking for brand name.” She says that people are looking for jobs with practicality today.

The job market is in a good position to provide what the young workers are asking for. The US unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in five decades. Job openings have ranked up across industries from their pre-pandemic levels. Although there was much talk about the recent tech layoffs, the total number of layoffs across industries is lower in comparison to what was seen in previous years. The jobs report on Friday revealed that employers have added 263,000 jobs in November, indicating the stability of the job market.

However, some young workers are still anxious about their careers. The rising inflation affects the job insecurity of about two-thirds of young adults in the US who have not graduated from college. The story is a little bit different for those who completed college. The recent graduates had to complete their college education among many disruptions due to the pandemic lockdowns. A very small amount of college graduates who were aiming for high-paying jobs in the tech sector are affected by the large-scale tech layoffs in the past month.

All of these factors contribute to lowering the optimism of American job seekers. According to ZipRecruiter, job seeker confidence declined in the month of October. Almost half of the college seniors have expanded their job searches due to economic anxiety. Young job seekers are greatly concerned about the years of uncertainty recently due to the pandemic which left them devoid of their hope for finding a dream job. Most just want to find a stable and secure position today.

ZipRecruiter says that the share of job seekers across all ages saying that security is one of their biggest priorities in a job search has risen to 37% in October. Young workers are applying for jobs by the salary range to ensure that they can make ends meet every month. Some are shifting careers because the pandemic left them feeling that their previous sector was not stable enough.

Tiffany Dyba, a recruiter in New York City, has become used to young people asking about free office lunches and happy hours when she approached them about job openings. Today, people are asking her about the possibility of remote work and compensation as the first thing when they hear about the opening. There is no sentiment about ‘finding the dream job’ anymore.

Young people had a big shock when the previously much-coveted employers began layoffs this year. Meta laid off around 11,000 workers in November. This is an employer that provided laundry services to its employees before. Amazon cut off 10,000 jobs in its technology and corporate sections. Twitter let go of around 3,000 workers. Twitter used to offer its employees free lunch until recently.