Research from early careers platform Higherin, based on 3,500 students, found 59.6% rated flexible or hybrid working as important or extremely important when choosing an employer.
Some 80% said they would accept lower pay in exchange for improved benefits such as greater annual leave, flexibility and clearer career progression.
While students’ average salary expectation stood at a minimum of £25,000, the findings suggest pay is no longer the dominant factor for many entering the workforce, with lifestyle and flexibility increasingly shaping decisions.
Higherin founder Oliver Sidwell said the survey reflected a broader shift in workplace expectations rather than declining ambition.
Sidwell added workplace culture was becoming increasingly important, with assumptions around unpaid overtime and constant availability being challenged.
Cost pressures
The findings come after hospitality operators warned rising costs have squeezed recruitment, particularly in entry-level roles traditionally filled by young workers.
Despite hospitality being one of the UK’s largest employers of 18-to-30-year-olds, many operators have reduced hiring, particularly of younger, less experienced staff, as employment costs rise.
Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) chief executive Michael Kill said increases in National Insurance Contributions, higher wage costs and wider cost pressures had directly affected recruitment.
The organisation further warned unless employment costs were addressed, the gap between employer capacity and worker expectations would continue to widen.
“This Government has created its own youth unemployment crisis through a tax system that is fundamentally not pro-employment and certainly not pro-youth employment,” Kill added.
“Young people are being locked out of the workforce at the very moment they should be building skills, confidence and careers.”
Data from Dojo’s Inflation Index this week showed just one in four hospitality staff remain in their role beyond 90 days, while training costs have risen 48% over the past decade.
Economically beneficial
Meanwhile, the Milburn review, led by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn, found nearly 1m 16- to 24-year-olds were not in education, employment or training.
UKHospitality chief executive Allen Simpson said reducing employment costs was key to tackling the problem: “The Government needs to make it economically beneficial to employ young people once again.”
Elsewhere, research from Plunkett UK, a national charity supporting rural areas, showed more than half of community businesses employ 16- to 25-year-olds, highlighting their importance for skills development.
Chief executive James Alcock said: “Hospitality has traditionally provided that crucial first step into work, but in many communities those opportunities are disappearing.
“Community owned pubs and cafés are stepping in to fill that gap, creating accessible, local jobs where they are needed most.”
