Why young Aussies are walking out of high-paying jobs and taking a salary cut despite cost-of-living crisis

Daily Mail​

6 days ago

Young Australians are less interested in having a long, stressful career as houses become increasingly unaffordable for average-income earners.
Australia's median capital city house price is now above $1million, meaning only dual-income couples or individuals on high salaries can buy a home with a backyard.
But rather than work harder in a career role to afford a house, Australia's younger workers are less inclined to do stressful corporate jobs, long-term, if there isn't a meaningful reward or a work-life balance, despite there being a cost-of-living crisis.
Jin, 23, is graduating at the end of this year from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Science majoring in data science and accounting.
He will start a full-time graduate role in January next year and is bracing for the occasional weekend shifts as he helps prepare financial reports for big firms during the twice-yearly earnings seasons.
But he is aspiring for some work-life balance in his twenties, including some travel.
'I do think a balance is necessary - if we don't have the correct amount of sleep or just the correct amount of breaks to take our minds off things, it's just very hard for us to stay focused,' he told Daily Mail.
'I do want to explore the world outside of Australia. I want to see and experience different cultures.'
He is also hoping to work reasonable hours so he has time for family and a social life.
'I think I have a nice balance right now, where I spend my time with my family and my partner,' he said.
'Once or twice a year, I strive to take a one-week holiday or go on a break with my family or my partner.'
Jin will continue to live with his parents in Sydney as he saves up to eventually buy a place of his own, instead of spending an exorbitant amount on rent.
'The average salary of an auditor or any graduate role is not enough to have a balance - I would say 40 per cent of your salary will go to rent,' he said.
'How are people supposed to afford houses or go on holidays or have mortgages?'
Jamie MacLennan, the Asia-Pacific managing director of TELUS Health, said younger workers were less inclined to take on stressful roles, despite needing higher pay to cope with the cost of living crisis.
'People are trying to rebalance and balance the work-life component in a world where we're essentially on 24/7,' he said.
'Somewhere along the line, people have got to earn a living, but then the question is - "What's the cost of making that living?" - that's where people are rebalancing.
'You can't quit completely or at scale - there's always going to be an element of people who do that.
'Whether they take the traditional career paths, whether they aspire to those, creates a bigger dislocation.'
Mr MacLennan said the mental health effects of Covid on younger people would create succession planning issues for companies in coming years, as fewer of them aspired to be in senior roles.
'We haven't recovered from Covid - our brains have been rewired. There continues to be a mental health crisis - crisis is not an overstated term in Australian society and it's most acute in that younger generation coming through,' he said.
'People have that sense of missing out - they're in a situation where they can't afford to get what they want or they can't afford to live in the environment that they want.'
Stress is now a deal breaker for staff, with recruitment agency Randstad revealing 60 per cent of workers would rather have less stress than more pay. Unbearable demands had seen 40 per cent of workers switch to a lower-paid role.
Amelia O'Carrigan, Randstad's director of public sector and business support, said employers couldn't ask staff to work five days in the office without incentives.
'It's not a complete pull back on flexibility and expect that workers will agree to that. In fact, to completely say - "You need to be back into the office five days" I would say would be a risky strategy,' she said.
'As job confidence starts to return, you'd be at risk of employees looking elsewhere.'
The Randstad survey of 5,250 workers in Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, the UK and the United States found stress to be a major issue.
Financial concerns are the biggest driver of personal stress in Australia, with 44 per cent nominating it as a problem, a survey of 1,000 people by TELUS Health found.
Unaffordable housing was also cited as a driver, with 18 per cent nominating their housing or living situation as a source of personal stress.
While many young people are reconsidering taking on stressful roles, Jin said he would be willing to make sacrifices to one day establish a data-oriented start-up for small businesses, that could use AI to audit their finances in real time.
'If I were to want to live comfortably, or think about having a better life, I would try to branch off into a different industry,' he said.
'If the corporate ladder doesn't work, I'll try my hand with something I like within data science, because I sacrificed it away for stability - I'll try to think about doing a start-up project on the side.
'Earning more money comes with more responsibilities so naturally you come with more stress - probably personally, I think I have pretty good stress management.'
'My goal, before I hit 30, I'll try to get a car that I like, I like sportscars, I want to work towards that. We need goals in life or what are we working for? If we're just working for a living - it's not hard, it would just be very boring.'