Fun Facts About Young Workers

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Salary research site Payscale and research firm Millenial Branding partnered for a new study on young workers called Gen Y on the Job.

Over the past year, the survey used a sample of 500,000 workers aged 19-29, although since not all survey questions are required, some data is based on as few as 75,000 responses. (Still pretty big.)

There’s a lot of information here, including top employers, best metro areas for young workers, education levels and majors paired with median pay, job titles. You can see a mix of all that in the graphic below, dig in at the link above, or just check out a few highlights right here…

  1. Underemployed. 63 percent of this generation’s workers have a bachelor’s degree, but many aren’t (or can’t) use it now. They’re four to five times more likely than the average worker to be in retail, selling phones and clothes.
  2. Tech lovers. The best companies for this generation to work at (based on pay, workplace age range, job stress, satisfaction, and flexibility) are tech companies. Top 5: Qualcomm, Google, Medtronic, Intel, Microsoft. Young workers here pull an average salary ranging from $63,000 to almost $93,000.
  3. Helping the little guys. Although a large group of this generation’s workers are in retail and the best places for them are tech titans, most work for smaller businesses. Almost half are at companies with fewer than 100 employees, and less than a quarter are at companies with more than 1,500 employees.
  4. Over-marketed. The most commonly reported job skills for this generation including blogging, social media optimization, and press releases.
  5. Science and business leaders. This generation is almost twice as likely as the average American to have majored in neuroscience, bioengineering, or entrepreneurial studies.

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