Salary not sole concern for young adults weighing career decisions, focus groups find

There are many reasons to believe that today’s young adults might have unusual relationships with work. Their lifetimes have been marked by observing the nosedive in employment during the COVID-19 pandemic, quickly followed by the Great Resignation, when workers switched jobs at high rates. They now enter college and the workforce in the midst of conversations on artificial intelligence and its perceived threat to entry-level work, especially for college graduates.

Young adults’ relationships with work are important to understand because people often develop career-relevant relationships and skills during their 20s. If they disengage from work and school altogether, they could delay their progress during this critical developmental period with ramifications for later earnings and employment. What’s more, not all postsecondary options necessarily guarantee positive returns on investment, which can make career decisions even harder.

How do today’s young adults view work?

Given this unusual economic period, how are young adults weighing their career options? By knowing more about this decision-making process, employers and educators can better build the talent pipeline needed to maintain a healthy economy.

We conducted focus groups with young adults and asked about their motivations when choosing career paths. We also asked what payoffs they looked forward to as a result of their hard work today and what challenges their generation faces.1

While challenging economic conditions were at the forefront of many participants' minds, they still considered both personal and practical factors when making choices about their careers.

Participants name affordability as their generation’s biggest hurdle

Our participants’ most common challenges reflected broader macroeconomic trends: high prices combined with a tough job market. “Now that we’re the adults, it’s harder for us to, like, find affordable apartments and things like that,” one participant said, “And then the job market is terrible now. So a lot of us are stuck.”

Participants also said Gen Z is unfairly perceived as lazy and unwilling to work low-wage jobs. A couple of participants noted their generation’s affordability challenges left them disinterested in low-wage jobs. Their comments on inflation and high costs mirror other research finding that macroeconomic trends can influence young adults’ career decision-making process. As one participant said: “How expensive food is, how expensive gas is … it’s just little stuff that is becoming so expensive that it’s very hard for us to even get a start. Because you have to start running before you even start walking.”

However, despite concerns about affordability, participants’ career choices were also heavily influenced by personal considerations outside of finances. Personal interests, experiences and values also fueled participants’ choices in what careers to pursue.

Personal elements of decision-making include pursuing passions, feeling pride

Sometimes participants’ experiences sparked new interests, and in other cases, preexisting interests and values informed career choice. For example, one participant switched her field of study to oncology nursing after seeing how well nurses had recently cared for her mother. In another example, a participant already knew she had an interest in math and valued helping others, which led her to choose a career in financial advising.

When asked what payoffs they hoped to see in the future, participants noted several personal rewards, such as feeling proud of themselves or someone else feeling proud of them. They also mentioned the importance of enjoying their work, in addition to the pay. “I just want to find something that I enjoy,” one participant said, and “also pays me enough to get through.”

Practical considerations, such as job availability and financial security, remain

Still, practicality played a big role in our participants’ decision-making. Many participants chose fields that they both had interest in and thought would give them broad career options.  “I would like to earn my forklift certification,” one participant told us, “so I can…open my job opportunity out more.” Another, a nursing student, noted “the career possibilities” that come with her field. “It is very broad and open to different areas that I can work in.”

Thinking about their future, participants hoped for practical rewards such as financial stability and self-sufficiency despite affordability issues. “I would like to have my own space and, you know, provide for myself,” one participant said, “And not just worry about when’s the next meal gonna come in or asking people for money.”

Practical and personal: two sides of the same coin

In our focus groups, we observed that macroeconomic trends can influence young adults’ career decision-making processes. Specifically, those facing affordability challenges may not consider low-paying jobs appealing or worth applying for, especially if these jobs don’t contribute to either the tangible or intangible payoffs young adults are seeking.

Given what we heard, those working to enroll students or attract young workers can consider emphasizing both the practical and personal reasons for a young adult to choose a certain path. For instance, those leading training programs for jobs that pay well but fly under the radar may consider marketing practical benefits, like a wide array of job options, in addition to enjoyable parts of the job, like working with a team or seeing the fruits of your labor.

On the other hand, there are other programs that often attract workers who are passionate about the field, but the programs are difficult to complete due to cost or time commitment. Those offering such programs may consider advertising payoffs like quick job placement or entry-level salary to motivate students throughout the process and balance the practical and personal considerations that young adults weigh.

Notes

Special thanks to Ruby Martinez-Berrier and Anikha Guda for their assistance.

1. We conducted four focus groups from April to July 2025 with a total of 18 young adults from four different regions in Texas: North Texas, the Rio Grande Valley, the Gulf Coast and Central Texas. These young adults were generally from low- and moderate-income households, and they were involved with local workforce development programs. Importantly, our results are not meant to generalize about all young adults but rather shed light on the complexity of their thinking. | Learn more about our methodology.