Millennials are struggling with tough working conditions, research by Bauer Media reveals, 41 per cent say they struggle to get by on their current wage (Bauer Media Millennials Trends 2016). To counterbalance this, a quarter (25 per cent) say they do things to make money outside of their contracted work.
Millennials find work to be all consuming; 65 per cent think about work outside of work hours, 38 per cent often do work outside of work hours and nearly half (49 per cent) said that work and travelling takes up all of their time during the week. In addition, a fifth (18 per cent) classed their work/life balance as ‘bad’.
Not surprisingly, 15 per cent of millennials plan on changing jobs in the next year, compared to 8 per cent of all adults.
Despite this, the research reveals the group to be very ambitious. Half (50 per cent) agree that they see the work they do as a career rather than just a job (compared to 34 per cent for all adults) and 53 per cent said they want to get to the very top in their career (compared to 25 per cent for all adults). More than half have ambitions to set up their own business one day – much more than the 28 per cent who agreed from the all adults category.
Millennials are also twice as likely to sacrifice time with their family to get ahead at work, research by Bauer Media reveals, with 29 per cent admit they would compared to 16 per cent of all adults.
Rebecca Holman, editor of Bauer Media owned The Debrief, says, ‘It’s clear from this research that millennials place real value on their careers, wanting to excel. However, we should be concerned about the struggle many millennials face in today’s employment market – this entrepreneurial group clearly want to reach the top of the career ladder, but are coming up against real day-to-day issues, leading to unhappy working conditions and even a willingness to sacrifice family time.
‘The working world is changing, with the erosion of traditional 9 – 5 jobs, and we need to ensure we support the development of new skills to ensure young people are well placed to embrace these changes.’
Abby Carvosso, group managing director, Bauer Advertising, says, ‘We pride ourselves on our deep audience understanding, allowing us to both understand how audience groups are behaving currently, as well as predict changing behaviours and anticipate issues that will grow in importance.
‘Reaching 57 per cent of all UK millennials via our media brands, our editorial talent work closely with insight such as this study to create campaigns for commercial partners that have true cultural impact.’
Bauer Media will be discussing these findings in more detail at Advertising Week Europe in a seminar called: The ‘Millennials: Meet Your Future Boss’/
Millennials, which refers to those aged 16 – 34, are a highly valued audience; making up one in four adults in the UK with a predicted audience growth to 17m in 2019. Bauer Media’s insight comes from a unique study of 300 millennials to provide an in-depth analysis of current behaviours.
Further reading on millennials
