Majority of Gen Z workers are concerned about a potential recession, future of jobs

Yahoo Finance Live anchors Dave Briggs and Seana Smith discuss a new Adobe survey, which found that 70% of Gen Zers are worried about a possible recession.

Video Transcript

- Time now for old people talking about Gen Zers. Adobe is out with a new survey talking about Gen Z and the workplace. Gen Z expected to account for 30% of the US workforce by 2030. That's according to Adobe. And they have unique challenges ahead of them with fears of a recession and the pandemic-led rise in remote work. 70% surveyed say they are worried about a recession. Many of the college students and recent grads say they are saving money ahead of a possible downturn.

- And, Dave, those macroeconomic factors are clearly having an impact because 67% in this survey say that those macro factors have influenced or will influence their job choice when it comes to picking an industry or a company. 55% will look at a company's financial outlook before applying. 85% say that they're less likely to apply without a disclosed salary range. We know that's a very popular topic of discussion.

This one, though, is a little surprising considering the appeal of remote work. 75% say that they would be willing to relocate to be closer to work. Clearly, they're emphasizing that Gen Z does see a value of coming into the office. I think the big question there is, how many days they really want to come into the office? Most likely they probably want some sort of hybrid situation.

Another stat that did stick out to me was the startup and how only 16% saying that they would pursue a role with a startup or a small-size company. I'm a millennial. But I know there was so much excitement when I came out of college of people wanting to work in a startup. And that was in the middle of the recession, of the Great Recession. Still, startups were attractive. A lot of people found that the growth that you could have there, the experience that you could get. It was willing to take that risk. That certainly does not seem to be the case. Now maybe they learn from our mistakes.

- That and recessionary fears. And of course, I'm the Gen X here. So as far as the be willing to relocate closer to a job, I think young people, regardless of what generation they're labeled with, they don't have a lot of attachments. They don't really care to be home all the time. In fact, they want a more social environment. They want to have happy hour. So that probably all lends itself to being in the office. And, hopefully, they want to learn and their first job because that is all you want to do in that first job is really learn for the job that comes after it.

As for the rest of that entire survey, I'm curious to see how that changes over the next 12 months because if, in fact, their recessionary fears do come true, they won't be as empowered as, clearly, they are in that survey. They won't have those choices. They won't have that flexibility. They won't have the strength to argue for these things. So that is really a representation of how tight the labor market is right now. And that dynamic may soon change. I think, really, the most interesting trend we're seeing among that group is wage and salary transparency. And I think that's going to be better for all of them and, quite frankly, I hope for all of us.

- Yeah. I think so too. And I also think it's important to point out that those salary ranges, while there has been increased transparency, some of the ranges that are posted are mind boggling. There was one, what, $90,000 to $900,000. Didn't really do you any favors just in terms of narrowing down what you should be paid or what you could be paid in that role. But, again, I think the step towards more salary transparency. And people, also especially the younger generation, are more prone to talking about it. They think you should be talking about salary transparency. So, again, a huge focal point here for Gen Z when they're looking for a job.