An increasing number of Gen Zers and millennials are worried about their finances and taking on second jobs to boost their income, according to new research from Deloitte.

Financial stress, second jobs. The findings draw from a 2023 survey of more than 22,000 Gen Zers and millennials around the world. Each group cited the high cost of living as its “top societal concern.” High prices were a “major worry” for 35% of Gen Z and 42% of millennials, up six points for both groups from last year.

Half of Gen Zers and millennials reported living paycheck to paycheck, a five-point increase for both generations since 2022. Also, a higher share of Gen Zers (46%) and millennials (37%) reported taking on a side job in addition to their primary employment. The main reason both groups gave for doing so was needing an additional source of income.

“A lot of these jobs, not surprisingly, are jobs that they can leverage technology and social media platforms to fulfill,” Michele Parmelee, a global people and purpose leader at Deloitte who worked on the research, told HR Brew. Popular side jobs included selling products or services online, as well as gig work such as food delivery or ride-sharing.

Keep reading.—CV

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Though many employers and HR teams continue to lift up diversity efforts in the workplace, there have been some notable stumbles when it comes to creating a work environment that nurtures the growth of Black and minority employees.

So it’s not surprising that 54% of respondents believe that people of color face discrimination at work for wearing “natural hair styles linked to racial identity,” according to a new StyleSeat survey of 1,252 Americans.

“There’s a historical context around Black employees and their hair, and how our hair is policed in society, but also in the workplace,” Shereen Daniels, managing director of HR Rewired and author of The Anti-Racist Organization, told HR Brew. “If you’re working in organizations where you are a statistical minority because of your race or ethnicity, the majority is likely to have European hair, and therefore the expectations around professionalism are going to come from a very Eurocentric standard of beauty.”

At least 20 states and many local governments have adopted the CROWN Act, and some companies, like UPS, have updated hair policies to be more inclusive, but there’s more employers need to do, according to 46% of people of color surveyed.

Keep reading.—AD

You’ve combed through a maze of applications and put candidates through the ringer. Finally, the ideal match has emerged, but there’s a problem: They live across the country, and the position requires at least some in-person attendance.

As the workforce has eased into a post-pandemic normal, relocation budgets have increased: 68% of companies reported an uptick in relocations from 2021–2022, according to a survey from the national moving company Atlas, which queried 584 corporate leaders across 19 industries.

We asked HR Brew readers about their willingness to pay for new hires’ relocation expenses. Among respondents, almost half said it depends on the candidate, around a third said they wouldn’t, and the rest said they would.

On the rise. The ongoing shifts in our work habits are still leaving corporate office buildings relatively deserted compared to their pre-pandemic levels. In downtown Los Angeles, for example, office buildings recently reached a record-high vacancy rate of 30%, and the shift to remote work has rendered many office districts lifeless compared to neighborhoods with more bars and restaurants, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Yet, the Atlas survey indicates that employers still want workers in the office to some extent—and they’re willing to pay to make it happen. According to WorkLife, workers are also interested in pairing a new job with a change of scenery.

Laurie Chamberlin, head of recruitment solutions for North America at talent solutions provider LHH, told WorkLife, “The change that comes with relocation is daunting, but by embracing it, job-seekers can open themselves up to potentially life-changing opportunities and cut down the time it takes to find a well-suited role.”

More money, more hires? Contrary to claims that full-time in-office work is “dead,” nearly 60% of the companies polled by Atlas expect their relocation budgets to increase in 2023. Although the exact number of remote workers in the US is challenging to gauge, the New York Times reported a decline occurred in 2022.

The Atlas survey advises leadership to acknowledge the significant changes that have occurred since the pandemic upended many workplace standards, writing, “many changes (such as telework/remote work) are here to stay, changing the norms of corporate relocation.”—SB

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: US job openings rose to 10.1 million in April. (Bloomberg)

Quote: “It really provided me with a sense of internal conflict about working from home being a luxury or a right.”—Eric Deshawn Lerma, an executive assistant at Amazon, on feeling conflicted about participating in a walkout to protest his company’s return-to-office policy when many Amazon workers have no flexibility (the New York Times)

Read: Two Uber drivers in Los Angeles studied the fine print of a California law affecting gig workers beginning in 2021, and now drivers for rideshare apps, Doordash, Instacart, and other services are getting back pay, sometimes totaling thousands of dollars. (the Los Angeles Times)

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