millennials Archives - Junior Achievement of South Florida

Inflation, Scarcity and Teachable Moments

Author: Jack E. Kosakowski, President & CEO of Junior Achievement USA

Most Americans under the age of 40 are experiencing something they haven’t before; inflation. With the exception of a brief period at the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008, inflation has been restrained for nearly four decades. That means prices rising at a pronounced rate in a short amount of time is a new experience for many Millennials and members of Generation Z.

There are several contributing factors to the recent and sustained increase in prices. Though there are more academic ways of explaining how inflation works, a simple definition is “too many dollars chasing too few goods.” The sudden reopening of the economy following the initial shock of the pandemic, combined with government stimulus efforts, labor shortages, and the struggles of the global supply chain to keep up – creating scarcity of some products – are all contributing factors to the current surge in prices.

The impact of inflation and scarcity is not going unnoticed by young Americans. A recent survey by Junior Achievement and research firm ENGINE Insights found that 75 percent of teens have noticed changes during recent shopping experiences, including higher prices (49%), harder-to-find items (47%), and fewer checkers/less help at stores (32%).

From a financial literacy standpoint, these hopefully short-term economic realities present a teachable moment. There’s an old saying, “People fear what they don’t understand.” And while this doesn’t mean that today’s inflation shouldn’t be a cause for concern, as anyone who experienced the double-digit stagflation of the 1970s can attest, the factors contributing to today’s price increases are different than those of the past. Fostering a greater understanding of basic economic concepts among our young people will help them put their concerns into proper context.

To help achieve this, Junior Achievement delivers financial literacy learning experiences to young people in communities across the country with the support of business leaders, educators, and volunteers. Financial literacy is one of three educational pathways promoted by Junior Achievement, along with work- and career-readiness, and entrepreneurship. JA’s approach to these subjects has been shown to positively impact students’ knowledge, attitudes, and competencies related to these essential life skills. A 2020 study by research firm Ipsos shows that JA alumni credit Junior Achievement for helping them have a better understanding of how money, business, and careers work.

To learn more about how you can be part of these “teachable moments,” contact us today.

Author: Jack E. Kosakowski, President & CEO of Junior Achievement USA

Recently, and for the first time, the number of job openings in the United States exceeded 10 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) Report. At the same time, there are more than 7 million who are eligible to work but who are unemployed.

Over the past several months, there has been a great deal of conversation around what’s happening in the American workforce. This includes “The Great Resignation,” where record numbers of workers are quitting their jobs, citing everything from pandemic-related burnout and lagging wages to a complete reassessment of what a job should be in light of everything our society has experienced recently. When you hear these accounts, it’s natural to assume that this is a short-term issue that will work itself out over time as COVID-19 becomes more manageable and people get to the point where they must work to provide for themselves and their families.

The fact is, there is a longer-term problem at hand. Even before the pandemic, employers were struggling to find qualified workers. This had been an issue for several years. However, the difference between now and then is that record numbers of qualified professionals, primarily Baby Boomers, accelerated their plans for retirement during the pandemic. Unfortunately, while one of the most skilled generations in our nation has begun to move out of the workforce en masse, there aren’t similarly skilled younger workers prepared to take their place. More than anything else, this reality could help explain why there are 10 million job openings in need of qualified applicants and so few who can fill them.

The question is, “Why aren’t today’s younger workers more inclined or better prepared to take on these roles?” Ironically, Millennials are one of the most educated generations in history. Unfortunately, according to a 2015 study from the Educational Testing Service (ETS), that education failed to sufficiently cover critical skills needed for employment, including STEM, communication, and critical problem-solving, for too many members of that generation. Additionally, in terms of career aspirations, a 2019 survey by Morning Consult showed that 86 percent of teens and young adults were interested in “Social Media Influencer” as a career choice.

Now, this isn’t to say every teen or young adult is on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram trying to be the next Kim Kardashian or Jake Paul. For instance, the top college majors as of 2021 still focus on critically needed professions like business, healthcare, engineering, and education. And there are millions of Millennials and Gen-Zers who are finding work and career success in those and many other fields. But when our young people look to career role models, should it be surprising that those role models come from something they are extremely familiar with, like social media, and not engineering, for instance?

The truth is, as a society, we need to do a better job of tying education to work and career outcomes so that we don’t end up with such a significant disparity between people looking for jobs and jobs looking for people. This includes helping young people draw the connection between what they are learning in school and its application to success outside of the classroom. This means helping students explore their interests, talents, and strengths and linking them to an educational pathway that results in the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and competencies needed to find meaningful and rewarding jobs and careers. This also means putting them in contact with successful professionals in their communities who can serve as role models to inspire them to be the next engineer, technician, educator, skilled tradesperson, or physician, and not necessarily the next social media star.

Junior Achievement learning experiences do just that. As the result of JA’s work and career readiness pathways approach, which complements similar coursework in financial literacy and entrepreneurship, our program alumni tell us that Junior Achievement played a significant role in increasing their educational attainment, professional development, and career satisfaction. Part of our educational delivery includes engaging professionals from the local community as volunteers to deliver our learning experiences while sharing their work and career journeys with students. The combination of our volunteer delivery model and curriculum has been shown to inspire and prepare young people to find work and career success as adults.

“The Great Resignation” has been in the news lately.

There has been significant turnover of young workers, many citing burnout and job dissatisfaction for their reasons to seek other opportunities. For this Labor Day and beyond, Junior Achievement has developed a thought leadership piece and video focusing on the importance of aligning interests, talents, and passion with jobs and how JA learning experiences are one way to do this.

Much has been made in recent months about “The Great Resignation,” the tendency of young workers, primarily Millennials and Generation Z, to quit their jobs to pursue higher-paying, higher growth opportunities. According to a recent survey by Adobe, factors contributing to turnover include pandemic-related burnout, the repetitiveness of duties, poor work/life balance, and general job dissatisfaction. Additional research from Gartner shows that while most HR professionals realize an improved employee experience should be a priority for employers, only 13 percent of current employees are “fully satisfied” with their employment experience. This could help explain why 3.9 million Americans quit their jobs in June of 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The question is, “What can be done about this?” It’s not like this is the first time employees have had work/life balance issues, for example. In fact, according to ADP, the concept goes back to the late 1970s and early 1980s when two-income Baby Boomer families were juggling responsibilities at work and home. Since then, there have been many studies that show similar trends with Generation X and older Millennials. As for job satisfaction, for the past two decades, only about half of Americans have expressed satisfaction with their work, according to the Conference Board. And even in the early 1990s and late 1980s, when job satisfaction was at its peak, around 40 percent of Americans were still dissatisfied. The big difference now is what is driving employees to act on these concerns and quit at historic levels?

One factor could be a disconnect between employee’s interests, talents, and the fields in which they work. There’s a common saying attributed to everyone from Marc Antony to Mark Twain to ancient proverbs that goes: “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Regardless of who said it, there’s probably some truth to it, given the enduring nature of the sentiment.

The most common denominator behind “The Great Resignation” may be that most people simply don’t like what they are doing for a living. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, of the six most popular college majors, only 27 percent of graduates in those majors continued working in their fields of study following their initial employment out of school. Additionally, the Adobe survey notes that most Gen Z-ers struggling with burnout focus on those aspects of their jobs that they are passionate about to continue working. It’s entirely possible that what’s missing is the alignment of employees’ passions to what they do for a living that can’t be solved by employer perks like occasional free lunches and fitness benefits.

This isn’t to discount contributing factors that cause people to quit jobs, such as bad pay, a toxic workplace, and a lack of growth opportunities. But the fact that it is now happening on such a large scale that it’s become a societal trend should prompt consideration of broader underlying causes, such as the way we think of work and help our young people prepare for it.

At Junior Achievement, part of our focus is to help students become work- and career-ready. We do this by helping them understand the relevance of what they are learning in school to future success. We assist them in exploring their interests and talents as they relate to jobs and careers. Most importantly, we help students understand that higher education isn’t an end unto itself, but instead a means to help them achieve their potential as adults, whether that higher education takes the form of college, trade school, on-the-job training, or some other postsecondary pathway. As a result of this approach, our research shows that 88 percent of adult JA Alumni are satisfied with their careers.

We believe job satisfaction comes from the purpose and meaning derived from that work. That is accomplished by aligning passion, talents, skills, and competencies with that work. When all of this comes together, employee satisfaction has a chance to grow.

All posts tagged: millennials

Inflation, Scarcity and Teachable Moments

Author: Jack E. Kosakowski, President & CEO of Junior Achievement USA

Author: Jack E. Kosakowski, President & CEO of Junior Achievement USA

Why Work Needs Meaning

“The Great Resignation” has been in the news lately.