For Gen Z workers, it’s the ‘perfect time’ to leave a job, researcher says

Gen Z Researcher and Author Jason Dorsey details the labor trends Gen Z workers are exhibiting, such as their timeline for leaving jobs, financial security, and prioritizing work-life balances,

Video Transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: The Great Resignation showing no signs of stopping. Another 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in April, according to a report released today by the Bureau of Labor. Gen Z continues to lead that way, but why? Jason Dorsey is a researcher and the author of "Z Economy, How Gen Z Will Change the Future of Business and What to Do About It." Jason, good to see you. So a new report from Deloitte says that 40% of Gen Z-ers say they'll quit the next two years. Why? And what are the implications?

JASON DORSEY: Well, the reasons why are many, but some of them are really obvious. The generation has just gone through this pandemic. They were the number one-- people get this wrong all the time. They were the number one generation laid off during the pandemic, or loss of jobs, loss of hours, loss of pay. And so, of course, they're trying to make up for lost time, which is what we're seeing right now.

They also have more leverage as employees than they've ever had. And maybe they will improve job opportunities and signing bonuses and a variety of different things that they can do and sort of leverage at this moment. And they have the least responsibility in terms of family, child, houses, cars, and so forth. So it's really a perfect time for them to make that jump.

And what's interesting to me about the statistic you cited is, 40% of Gen Z say they're going to leave a job in the next two years. But for many of the companies that I work with, if they could keep 60% of their employees two years from now, they would think that's a huge success. So while these are big numbers, the key here is it's a really tough time to keep every generation, but in particular, Gen Z.

And we've been tracking this for many years in our research, and we don't think it's going to go away. In fact, we believe, as Gen Z continues to move into the workforce, have more skills, more experience, become even more valuable, they're going to actually get more leverage, which is an opportunity for employers to know what to do and a real challenge for those that try to take it on as business as usual.

SEANA SMITH: Jason, that's a lot more turnover than I think I was initially expecting to hear from companies. But my question to you, when it comes to Gen Z, there's so much focus on Gen Z right now because they're entering the workforce, lots to talk about. But how much does it differ than what we saw from millennials, just in terms of wanting to leave, maybe wanting to change their job within the next two years? Is that similar to what we've seen from previous generations?

JASON DORSEY: It's a brilliant question. And sort of yes and no. The yes is, it's similar to what we saw with the oldest millennials, who crashed into the Great Recession. I was one of them. We crashed into wage stagnation, rising cost of living, job loss, all of these things. And then once the economy turned around, we saw lots of people change jobs, and find new jobs, and re-enter the workforce.

The difference here is how young Gen Z is and that it's socially acceptable within the generation to change jobs. And now, I would argue, for the first time, employers are hiring people that have had short-term stints somewhere else. What I mean by that, it used to be, well, if you didn't work somewhere a year, we're not going to hire you. You're not loyal. And now they're like, oh, you've worked somewhere at all. [INAUDIBLE] And so that's really shifted in the favor of Gen Z in a way we haven't really seen in many, many years.

Now the interesting part is that the millennials you referred to, they're now the managers of these same Gen Zers. So the millennials who caused all these challenges are now the ones managing the Gen Zers, going, y'all are leaving jobs. You're getting hired. You're not even showing up. Ghosting is a huge deal. You don't want to work five days a week. What I love is, one of our new studies in our State of Gen Z study, we found that 44% of Gen Z said they had to work five days a week if they really wanted to get promoted. However, a majority of Gen Z still would not work five days a week in an office. [LAUGHS]

DAVE BRIGGS: So they don't care about getting promoted. At the end of the day, that shows a lot about their motivations. So that Deloitte report I mentioned earlier showed only a quarter of Gen Z can comfortably pay their living expenses. Nearly half live paycheck to paycheck. Given what you told us, is their priority work-life balance, or is it salary?

JASON DORSEY: Ooh, so it's interesting because we see differences based on where they are in terms of socioeconomics and other safety nets, do they live with their parents, and what can they fall back on. There's a lot there. But the interesting piece is, in our research, starting salary. The importance of it has gone up dramatically over the last 12 to 24 months. Everything else we study that attracts Gen Z to a job or gets them to stay, pretty much the same. In fact, workplace perks-- the fancy coffee and all that sort of stuff-- has actually fallen, and starting salaries moved up dramatically, because they're trying to make up for lost time.

But what's interesting is they're also pushing back and saying, yeah, I want to earn more money, but I don't want to work those same hours or same days. Now there's a bit of a mystery, at least in terms of a solution that we've uncovered. Most employers say, oh, Gen Z, they don't want to work five days a week. But what we found is, Gen Z actually will take jobs working five days a week if they could pick the hours, move the hours around a bit, then work more days. But if the hours aren't flexible, then the days become really important. So there is a silver lining that employers can take action now that will get Gen Z to work for them and be loyal.

But doing what they used to do pre-pandemic will not work now. In fact, for those that are watching there's three key things we see that employers have to offer. First, it's that starting salary. Second is some sort of flexibility. And then third are benefits. And benefits are unusual because as you all talked about, this is a younger generation. The oldest are now 26. But yeah, they care deeply about retirement matching and all these different benefits that often aren't talked about.

And one of my favorite discoveries from a new study is many in Gen Z actually want stability when it comes to an employer. And many employers are not talking about stability. In fact, I got to listen to your segment before this and all the layoffs and change and big companies. Stability is suddenly going to be very important to Gen Z as they look ahead. So both life balance is important, as well as starting salary and finding that combination that seems to work.

We refer it at our research center, we don't call this the Great Resignation. We call it the Great Realignment, because, really, what we're finding is that people are sort of realigning their schedule, their work, on these deeper priorities, sort of values clarification, if you will, that happened through the pandemic. And now they're saying, oh, I want to be able to do these other things and also have the leverage as employees to do that now. It's a really tough time to be an employer, a great time to be in Gen Z. And we've got to find a way to bridge those two.

SEANA SMITH: All right, it certainly sounds like a lot of changes may be on the way for the workforce. Jason Dorsey, thanks so much for joining us.