The Importance of Good Pay and Work-Life Balance for Young People in Career Choices

When choosing a career and training, young people pay particular attention to good pay. This emerges from a representative survey by the German Economic Juniors (WJD), which is available to the dpa news agency.

According to this, 81 percent of those surveyed want good earning opportunities. In second place is a good work-life balance, which is very important or important to 74 percent of those surveyed. In third place with 71 percent is the prospect of varied activities.

According to the survey, the meaning and purpose of the job are of secondary importance. They are only essential for around half of those surveyed. This also applies to the positive image of the profession and the opportunity to take on leadership responsibility. The opportunity to start a business or become self-employed comes in last place; for only 40 percent of young people, this is a decisive factor.

The President of the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB), Friedrich Hubert Esser, has a similar view of the generation: “For young people, career prospects are first and foremost important.” The ideal job must be crisis-proof and future-oriented.

Silke Anger, head of the education, qualification and employment trajectories research area at the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB), has the Generation Z met differently. “The most important thing for young people is that they enjoy the activity. Second place is safety,” she says. For most people, a high income is only in the middle range.

Gen Z wants appreciation and praise

Whether young people decide to take a job also depends on the boss. According to the WJD survey, more than half want appreciation and praise. For 43 percent, a manager should be open and ready for change. Technical competence only comes in third place (38 percent).

Julian Uehlecke, youth officer at the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB), repeatedly states that fair and appreciative treatment is essential. “You might think that activities like making coffee or sweeping the parking lot are outdated, but unfortunately that’s the reality for many trainees.” A third of the trainees are also regularly forced to work overtime.

“In times of many unfilled apprenticeships, it is more important than ever to adapt to the young target group,” said WJD federal chairman Tobias Hocke. For example, the work-life balance is becoming increasingly important for Generation Z, said the President of the Federal Institute for Vocational Training, Friedrich Hubert Esser. “In the past, people were more concerned about finding their way into companies and showing performance – less about coming up with their own demands before the first day of work, which is what we do today.”

Influence of Corona

In some cases, however, Corona stood in the way of their career aspirations. The pandemic had an impact on the career path of 30 percent of WJD respondents. Expert Esser also states: “The demand for training fell during the corona pandemic and has not recovered since then.”

1,012 men, women and people of different genders between the ages of 15 and 25 took part in the online survey from September 5th to 10th. In the broadest sense, the respondents therefore belong to the so-called Generation Z, which roughly includes those born after 1995.