Young Workers Like Facebook, Apple and Google
Baku, November 14 (AZERTAC). Young professionals want to work for Google, Apple and Facebook. About one in five young workers in the U.S. picked Google Inc. as a most desirable place to work according to a survey by Universum, an employment data and consulting firm. Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., the U.S. State Department and Walt Disney Co. round out the top five.
Universum queried about 6,700 early-career professionals, defined as college graduates under the age of 40 with one to eight years of work experience, and asked them to pick as many as five ideal employers out of a list of about 200. Respondents could also write in candidates.
This is the second year that Universum has conducted the survey. Google topped the earlier survey as well.
Google has "established a very strong brand in what its culture is, in what it`s like to work there," says Chris Cordery, Universum's director of Americas. Based on the responses to the survey, Mr. Cordery says, candidates "look at Google as compensating employees well and offering challenging work but at the same time it will be a fun and strong culture."
Meanwhile, many financial-services firms saw their popularity drop since last year, the survey found. Bank of America Merrill Lynch saw the steepest drop from number 48 last year to number 77 this year.
The survey didn't collect data as to why, but Mr. Cordery thinks that distrust of large financial institutions has grown among respondents, as a result of poor economic conditions, so "these organizations may not be as attractive as they once were."
Of course, getting a job in any of these companies is a tough feat, with the economy on rocky footing. Still, the unemployment rate for college graduates ages 25 and over is only 4.4%—much lower than the 9% unemployment rate of the population at large.
Meanwhile, many young professionals are interested in leaving their current jobs, the study found, with some 61% hoping to leave their jobs within the next two years. Given the rough economy, "they've hung onto jobs probably longer than they would have liked," says Mr. Cordery.
Nonetheless, 40% of respondents also said that among potential employers job stability was very important, especially in this layoff-prone environment.
"Stability is still very much a concern and people equate government jobs with stability," he says, noting that the State Department, Federal Bureau of Investigations and Central Intelligence Agency were in the top 10 slots.
Accounting and management consulting firms dropped in popularity among young workers. But oil and gas companies grew significantly more attractive, owing to aggressive branding and marketing efforts as well as a robust employment market.
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