Between the Great Resignation and “quiet quitting,” it’s no secret that young adults have mixed feelings about their careers.
In fact, a new Gallup survey reveals that the share of people under 35 who report being engaged with their jobs has dropped from 37 percent to just 33 percent between 2019 and 2022 — the lowest level since 2011.
And to make matters worse, the share of those who report being “actively disengaged” rose to 17 percent from 12 percent. That’s a lot of young people who are unenthusiastic about their work.
So why are younger workers feeling so disengaged with their jobs?
If you take a closer look at the Gallup data, workers in their 20s and early 30s report a plummeting sense of feeling cared about at work, having someone who encourages their development, having opportunities to learn and grow, having a best friend at work and believing that their opinions count. That’s a lot of negativity.
Despite the dire state of things, Caitlin Duffy, a research director at consulting firm Gartner, explained there is still time to or employers to turn things around.
“If employees aren’t engaged, there is likely something about the way their work is designed that’s not optimal,” Duffy said. “If you can optimize that, then you’ll be unlocking all of their potential — as opposed to constraining it by legacy assumptions or processes or things that just don’t fit anymore.”
