Why Gen Z Females Quit Their Jobs at Nearly Twice the Rate of Males
20 November 2024, Sydney
Alarming new data has highlighted a significant gender disparity in why young Australians quit their jobs, according to a national study from digital youth engagement platform Year13.
The new research has found customer abuse is driving nearly twice as many young females to quit their casual jobs as young males (12% vs 7%), while females are also significantly more likely than males to leave their work due to stress (30% vs 18%).
Year13 surveyed 1032 15–24-year-olds nationally about their experience working casual jobs such as retail, hospitality and fast food in their teenage years and early twenties.
Young people who identify as LGBTQIA+ were also found to be twice as likely as those who don’t identify as LGBTQIA+ to say they’ve quit a casual job due to customer abuse (16% vs 7%) and stress (36% vs 19%).
However, the research has found parents are overwhelmingly supportive of their school-aged children getting a casual job, with two in three (65%) Gen Zs saying their parents encouraged them to start working a casual job during high school.
Just 18% of young people say their parents made them wait until after high school was finished to get a casual job, however, this is significantly higher among young people from a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background compared to young people not from a CALD background (29% vs 15%).
The top 10 businesses Gen Zs say they want to work at for a casual job are led by Big W (50%), followed by Bunnings (44%), Coles (44%), Kmart (43%), Officeworks (43%), JB Hi-Fi (43%), Woolworths (42%), Cotton On (39%), Aldi (38%) and Dymocks (35%).
The industry most young people say they are interested in working in for a casual job is retail (71%), followed by supermarkets (61%), hospitality (55%), fast food (44%), entertainment (e.g. cinemas, bowling etc.) (39%), admin and support (38%), education and childcare (36%), paid apprenticeships and traineeships (24%), sports (e.g. coaching, refereeing) (23%), construction (15%), and transport, postal and warehousing (13%).
Reasons for young people to get their first casual job include financial independence (74%); to buy things their parents won’t pay for (61%); to start building their resume (61%); because they don’t get pocket money (36%); and to help their family with living expenses (17%). Young people from a CALD background are nearly twice as likely as those not from a CALD background to say they were motivated to help their family with living expenses (28% vs 15%).
For their first casual job two in five (40%) young Australians say they worked for a big business, like a supermarket or fast-food chain, while slightly less (36%) worked for a local business, like a cafe or a pub.
While securing their first casual job may be easy for many teenagers it isn’t for all of them, with a third (37%) reporting they got their first casual job after submitting only one job application, while one in seven (14%) needed to submit 10 or more applications before landing their first casual job and a third (32%) needed at least four.
Across their working history an almost even amount of young Australians say they have worked casually for a big business (55%) and a local business (53%), followed by odd jobs and cash in hand work like babysitting, tutoring and mowing lawns (41%), and gig economy work like Uber and Fiverr (6%).
The big businesses most young people say they have worked at for a casual job are McDonald’s, followed by Woolworths, Coles, KFC, Dominos, Hungry Jacks, Kmart, Target, IGA and Bunnings.
Even though casual jobs are highly sought after by teens they aren’t seen as a long-term option by most, with less than one in ten (7%) young people saying they plan to turn their casual job into a career.
When it comes to their casual work hours two in five (41%) young people say they would like more hours of work, slightly above the number of those who say they are working enough hours (37%), while just 5% say they are working too many hours.
Year13 Co-Founder Saxon Phipps said: “As teens look to kickstart their working lives this summer it’s shocking to see one in eight teenage girls and young women report that they’ve been driven out of a job due to customer abuse. It’s an important reminder to be on the lookout for young workers this summer, many who are inexperienced and don’t easily forget these instances of abuse they suffer.
“Despite this we can see most parents are keen for their high school aged children to get a casual job, but the data shows a clear disconnect between these first job experiences and long-term career plans. We can see how they are viewed as steppingstones for financial independence and building up resumes rather than a pathway for their career.
“Even so we know that many of the most important social skills for people's careers like teamwork, customer service and time management are developed on those busy shop and restaurant floors during our youth, so casual jobs still have lots of long-term career value for young people.”
About the Research
Online survey of 1032 Australians aged 15-24.
About Year13
Founded in 2011, Year13 is a Gen Z Publisher and Ed-tech whose purpose is to support young people to live happier, healthier and more fulfilled lives, and whose mission is to upgrade the school-to-work transition. Year13’s suite of brands includes Career Tools, Australia’s largest school to work transition platform, with over 1250+ subscribing schools. In 2023, Year13 acquired Good Education Group, including The Good Universities Guide, The Good Schools Guide and Studies in Australia, together with Australia’s most comprehensive database of schools, universities and training providers.