Millennial business boom. Almost 32.000 new businesses born in the second quarter of 2015 were founded by an under 35, i.e. more than 300 businesses were opened per day led by young people, with a growth of 3,6% compared to the previous quarter against +0,6, 54% referring to the overall business system. A third of all businesses started in the quarter are headed by a young person. And more than half (594.000%) of the balance between companies born and closed in the period is due to young people. The overall stock of young people's businesses is now 9,8, ie they make up 40,6% of the country's entrepreneurial fabric. Against the barriers to accessing the labor market and the risks of stranding in precariousness, Italian Millennials have opposed a vital force starting from a consolidated Italian power: entrepreneurship. The desire for business is transversal to the territories, including the most critical ones, because even in the South and Islands 3,5% of the companies born in the quarter can be traced back to a young person, with a growth rate of 2015% compared to the previous quarter. This is what emerges from the research «Millennial life: web, new media, startups and much more. Testing new subjects of Italian recovery» created by Censis for the Italy Pavilion at Expo XNUMX.
Champions of adaptability in the labor market. There are 2,3 million Millennials (young people aged 18-34) who carry out a job of a lower level than their qualification (they are 46,7% of those who work, compared to 21,3% of Baby Boomers in 35-64 years old). One million Millennials changed at least two jobs during the year, 1,2 million claim to have worked illegally in the last twelve months, 1,8 million have done odd jobs to earn something, 1,7 million in the last year worked with contracts lasting less than a month, 4,4 million did unpaid internships. In order to enter the world of work and "stay in the game", many Millennials are satisfied with jobs far from their training path, even illegally. Far from too choosy: it is a submerged and little recognized social adaptability.
Stakanov was a Millennial. More than 3,8 million Millennials work overtime (17,1% more than Baby Boomers). Of these, 1,1 million did so without receiving overtime pay (4% more than in the 35-64 age group) and 1,7 million with only occasional financial coverage. 1,1 million Millennials also happen to work at night, nearly 3 million during the weekend. Again: 1,8 million work remotely, from home or in any case away from the workplace, 1,9 million commute and 2,5 million often travel for work in cities other than the one in which they reside. They work while connected, remotely, with an expansion of times and places of work. With dedication and availability, they live a working time that sometimes engulfs their life time and employment enters more and more into everyday life.
Between digital life, sobriety and sharing economy: on the frontier of innovation. The digital life is already here for the Millennials: 94% are internet users (against 70,9% referring to the total population), 87,3% are registered on at least one social network (against 60,2% average), 84,7% use the smartphone always connected to the network (against the average 52,8%). And they are the ones who made online commerce take off. 61,4% of Millennials (about 6,8 million people), compared to 27,9% of Baby Boomers, have purchased at least one product or service on the web in the last year. 1,2 million young people bought food products online, equal to 10,8% (against 5,4% of Baby Boomers). The web is the place of expression of the innovative power of the Millennials, who are the real protagonists of the sharing economy. Nearly 500.000 young people contribute to crowdfunding initiatives. Sobriety and the sharing economy go hand in hand in their daily lives: 31,7% buy used products (against 14,7% of Baby Boomers), 21,9% travel regularly by bicycle (only 10,3% do the same of 35-64 year olds) and 8,4% (4,1% of 35-64 year olds) use car sharing and bike sharing. And 2,5% of Millennials practice couchsurfing, i.e. the exchange of hospitality which consists in making a bed available in one's own home by posting the ad on a web platform and going to other people's homes in the same way.
Individualists, supportive and global: the polycentrism of values and behaviours. 73,4% of young people aged 18-34 (against 45,8% referred to the overall population) are in favor of marriage among homosexuals, 59,6% (against the average 30,7%) are agreement with adoption by same-sex couples. 81,8% (against the average 64,1%) are in favor of quick divorce and 77,5% (against the average 58,3%) agree with living wills. Among the Millennials, ethical subjectivism prevails, but it coexists with a solidarity propensity with a global vocation. 66% (against 53,4% referring to the total population) are in favor of welcoming refugees from areas affected by war or natural disasters.
Energy for the future. 59,1% of Italians believe that the best days for our country are now in the past. For the Millennials, however, the best is yet to come: 42,1% think so against an average figure of 20,9%. They are convinced that the future must be built with a drive towards change in everyday life: 77,1% declare that there are things in their lives that they would change (the average figure is 62,6%) and the need for radical changes is expressed from 27,1%. However, the desire for change does not end in complaints: almost 60% of Millennials are all in all satisfied with their current life. For them, the desire to build the future is linked to the belief that the Italian powers are not just a legacy of the past, but are resources for the future. And the Italian Pavilion of Expo 2015, right from its conception, was conceived precisely as a support space for the many talents and young energies, to which it wanted to give hospitality and visibility with the aim of helping them to germinate. In the success of Expo 2015 and the Italian Pavilion, the role of young people is decisive and recalls the social function that they are necessarily called to play in the near future.
