Paychex and IHS Markit released a report detailing the role of millennials in the workforce of small businesses, and found them to currently be the largest generational employee group. The report, titled, “The Rise of the Millennial Employee” covers the industry preferences, geographic distribution, and wages of this section of the workforce as of September 2017, providing insights into the future and current employees of America.
Millennials mostly work in the leisure and hospitality industry, making up 49.9% of the workforce, followed by professional and business services with 39.1%, health and education services with 38.7%, while manufacturing jobs employ the least at 31.8%. These jobs are further divided by gender, with construction jobs employing 6.2 times more men than women, and health and education services employing 4.4 times more women than men.
Millennials employment by region varies, with the West holding the majority with 40.2% of millennials employed, followed by the South with 38%, the Northeast with 37.5%, and with the Midwest in last at 36%. When looking at employment percentages in metro regions these trends remain the same, with Riverside, CA in the West having 41.4%, Houston, TX in the South employing 39.8%, Boston, MA, in the Northeast employing 39.6%, and Chicago, IL in the Midwest employing 38.5%.
Millennials make an average of $21.80 an hour nationally, which is $5.78 lower than the national average per hour. This number, however, is growing with the annual hourly earnings growth rate approaching double the national average at 5.8% and 3.0% respectively. The number of hours millennials work per week is also below the national average with 38.6 hours compared to 38.8 hours, but when separated by gender, males are above the national average with 39.6 hours while females are 1.3 hours below it with 37.5 hours per week.
