Where are millennials most confident about their careers?

Although youth unemployment remains stubbornly high in many countries, millennials are surprisingly confident about their career prospects.

The Millennial Careers: 2020 Vision report from Manpower surveyed over 19,000 millennials across the world, and found that the majority feel optimistic about their future career.

Where are they most optimistic?

Millennials entered the labour market during a global recession with record levels of youth unemployment, fast-changing business models and increased demand for new skills.

Despite these hurdles, two thirds say they are optimistic about their current job prospects, and 62% feel confident that if they lost their main source of income tomorrow they could easily find equally good, or better work within three months.

This confidence is most strongly felt by millennials in China, Mexico, Switzerland, Germany, India and the US.

On the other hand, less than half of millennials in Greece and Italy are confident about their job prospects, and the majority of Japanese millennials are not optimistic about their careers. The report highlights that this lack of confidence reflects economic, political and cultural factors in these countries.

One foot out of the door

While millennials may be optimistic about their career prospects, this doesn’t mean they’re planning to stay with their current employers.

The Deloitte Millennial Survey 2016 surveyed over 7,000 millennials across the world and found that 66% expect to leave their current jobs in the next five years.

Company loyalty is less important to this generation – only 16% of millennial employees are planning to stay more than 10 years with their current employers.

This echoes the finding in the Manpower survey that unlike previous generations, millennials are not climbing a “career ladder”. Instead of a steady climb to the top, this generation will ride “career waves”.

This will mean short bursts of development, changes to career paths and pace, and more frequent career breaks.

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