Gen Y preparing for mass exodus

A new report has shown that Gen Y is opting to head away from Australia and New Zealand’s job markets in favour of seeking work overseas.

The survey – conducted by Robert Walters – found that almost 90% of millennials working in the ANZ region want to head abroad to find work.

However, of the 400 employers who were questioned, three in four said they did not offer opportunities to travel overseas for work.

James Nicholson, managing director of Robert Walters ANZ, said that rising unemployment and doubt around the nations’ economic future was contributing to Gen Y’s international interest.

“Millennials have grown up in a borderless world with greater access to international travel, so their sights are set high to begin with,” he said.

“With a lot of discussion around economic downturn locally, we are seeing a reverse trend from the post-GFC period when we were dealing with an influx of foreign workers looking for gainful employment.”

He added that it was concerning to see companies were not offering overseas opportunities as millennials viewed these as critical to their career growth. 

Generational conflict

The report also revealed that more than half of millennials had experienced or witnessed inter-generational conflict in their workplace.

It was found that 80% of employers believed that the biggest source of these conflicts stemmed from younger generations’ expectations of rapid progression.

Employees, meanwhile – from three generational groups – agreed that the main source was a “difference in expectations of organisational values”.

A quarter of Gen Y workers also said that conflict was caused by older generations’ reluctance to use new technologies.