According to Michigan State University, an examination of high school seniors in the United States from 1976-2006 reveals that when it comes to qualities like individualism and egoism, there hasn’t been much change at all.
The stereotype surrounding millennials likely comes from the fact that, according to MTV, 71 percent of young adults believe they are too talented to sit in a cubicle or punch a clock. However, their perspective of the workforce is vastly different from that of previous generations.
Generation Y is the most interconnected generation in the workforce today. Millennials are tech savy, collaborative, and entrepreneurial. In fact, 46 percent of millennials want to start their own business within 5 years.
In the last decade, millennials have not only witnessed two wars, the greatest recession since the Great Depression, a major housing bust, and currently live in one of the slowest economic recoveries, but they have seen the rise of the young entrepreneur. They’ve watched Google, Facebook, Uber, and many other companies reshape entire industries.
As conservative commentator S.E. Cupp remarked in a recent editorial in the New York Daily News:
The message millennials have learned over the past decade is that you have to make things happen for yourself. And they are.
The following infographic was created by OnlineSchools.com.
So, are millennials selfish and lazy or has the evolution of society and the workforce shaped their perspective of the labor market?