This text is taken from Courrier de l’ économique. Click here to subscribe.
It’s almost the end of an era and the beginning of a new one: Generation Z – a term which refers to people born between 1997 and 2011, the “Zoomers” – will soon no longer be a minority in the job market. From next year, it should exceed that of baby boomers – born between 1946 and 1965 – who are retiring.
This is the finding that emerges from a Glassdoor report, based on labor market data in the United States. And the trend is much the same in Canada.
In 2022, in an analysis that painted the generational portrait of the population, Statistics Canada noted that millennials and Generation Z “now constitute a considerable part of the working-age population, which is leading to transformations in the labor market” .
For now, millennials — also known as Generation Y — dominate the job market. They are followed by Generation X and, until now… by the baby boomers, themselves closely followed by Generation Z.
The labor market in Canada in 2021
Salary is no longer a taboo
It can be easy to fall into stereotypes when discussing differences between generations at work, warns Manon Poirier, general director at the Order of Certified Human Resources Advisors of Quebec (CRHA).
We still note some differences in their relationship to work. Generation Z is “interested in impact”, that is to say that its members value working for “engaged” companies, explains Mme Poirier. They also advocate “flexibility, adaptation, teleworking”, she lists, based on the results of a Léger survey, conducted this year for the order of CRHA and the Employers’ Council.
Another observation made by Mme Poirier: “They are much more comfortable talking about salary and they have expectations of employers for more transparency on this subject,” she notes. In addition, they are less inclined to stay with the same employer for a long time. The labor shortage gives them an advantage in this regard, since they are in high demand by headhunters.
Finally, according to Statistics Canada, the youngest generations are “more exposed to ethnocultural, religious and gender diversity, and have grown up in a technological and interconnected universe which has a significant impact on their values and their way of life”.
In short, according to Glassdoor, this passing of the torch between generations represents a “pivotal” moment, synonymous with “cultural change” for companies.