Millennial job seekers have good reason to stay in Seattle -- Career Center Blog

August 27, 2012

Millennial job seekers have good reason to stay in Seattle

Post a comment |
E-mail |
Print
- Share:

By Randy Woods
NWjobs

Of all the demographic groups that have been studied for their economic vulnerability, the Millennials arguably have become the poster children of post-Great Recession victimhood. These young workers in the Seattle market, however, may soon become a bellwether for better things to come in the Puget Sound region.

Often referred to as Generation Y in the media and unfairly criticized for being self-absorbed, those born in the last two decades of the 20th century have been trying to establish their careers during one of the weakest job markets in recent memory. According to a summer report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the July 2012 unemployment rate for workers age 16 to 24 was a startling 17.1 percent.

Locally, Millennials are still facing an uphill battle in terms of job opportunities just as they are entering the job market in droves, but they may not have much better luck looking outside the region. A new joint study between compensation database PayScale Inc. and consulting firm Millennial Branding last week named Seattle the best city in which Millennial workers can find stable, high-paying jobs with a desirable work environment -- at least whenever those jobs do become available.

Conducted between July 2011 and July 2012, the Gen Y on the Job report surveyed about half a million workers between the ages of 18 and 29 to get a snapshot of what their professional lives are like, based on factors such as median salaries, wage growth, stress levels, commute time, job satisfaction and meaningful work.

Among the 20 largest metropolitan areas PayScale studied, Seattle came out on top with the nation's largest wage growth (4.4 percent from 2009 to 2012) for the Millennial demographic, well outpacing the national average of 2.5 percent for that period. While San Francisco boasted the highest Millennial median annual income in the country ($51,300), Seattle reported a strong $44,000 figure, along with an identical representation of workers in their age group (22 percent for both cities) and a shorter average commute time (24.3 minutes, compared to 29.3 minutes in San Francisco).

"Millennials are arming themselves with skills and educational training focused in technology and social media, two areas with great growth potential," says Katie Bardaro, lead economist for PayScale. Some of the best employers seeking these skills are located in the Seattle region, she said, including Amazon, Microsoft and Boeing.

In the GeekWire technology blog, writer John Cook recently quoted Bardaro describing Seattle as a "hub" for IT, engineering and biotechnology, which are "not only growing fields, but fields that pay well and fields that tend to hire recent college graduates." She also praised Seattle for being a hotbed of technology startups and a market with "tremendous wage growth" over the last few years. "Wage growth is a signal for labor demand and thus hiring," Bardaro added. "In today's economy, any city that is actively hiring is attractive, especially to Gen Y since they are tremendously underemployed and unemployed compared to previous generations at their age."

Does all this mean that Seattle is the most likely place in the nation for Millennials to find a job? Not necessarily. But when jobs do open up for workers with the experience and skill levels often possessed by the beleaguered 18-to-29-year-old demographic, odds are that the most rewarding, well-compensated positions will be found in the Seattle region.

So, for those recently graduated Gen Y workers who are feeling the call of their notoriously impetuous temperaments and heading elsewhere to seek greener pastures, it might be wiser to look more closely at your own backyard first.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.