Google, Apple, and others have long been considered the most desirable employers. However, recent numbers show that this has changed significantly. Where tech companies once dominated, now hospitals and the FBI take the lead.
Where do the numbers come from? Every two years, the “National Society of High School Scholars” surveys its members on how they assess their future job prospects. More than 10,000 people participate in the surveys. From the collected data, a ranking of the companies that these students most prefer to work for is created each time.
This year’s figures for 2024 are surprising because once-popular tech companies like Apple and Microsoft have fallen behind. Typically, these companies always hold top positions in the rankings.
Major Tech Companies Fall Behind for the First Time in Years
What did the ranking look like before? In the last survey (2022), Spotify, Google, and Amazon were among the top 5 companies desired by these future members of the workforce. This is reported by colleagues at 3Djuegos.com.
What do the survey results look like? However, 2024 looks different: All major tech companies, from Google to Microsoft, have fallen behind the Mayo Clinic, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, or the public health service. Even NASA and the FBI rank higher than any other major company in Silicon Valley, which hasn’t been the case for years. The complete survey can be found as a PDF directly at NSHS.org. The current top 10 are (the ranking from 2022 in parentheses):
- St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (2)
- Mayo Clinic (7)
- Health Care Service Corp. (14)
- Local Hospital (1)
- FBI (6)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (12)
- Google (4)
- Amazon (5)
- Apple (8)
- Walt Disney Company (10)
Other companies have been hit even harder: Spotify, which was among the top 5 for years, has fallen from 3rd place to 26th in 2024. And SpaceX has dropped from 9th place (2022) to 22nd.
What is the reason for this? As reported by the company Handshake, many young workers do not find what was promised to them at tech companies: They cannot change the world or develop technologies that could improve the future.
There is simply a lack of passion for the future of technology that these individuals exhibited just two years ago.
Instead, they end up at a publicly traded company, which does not hesitate to lay off a large part of its workforce only to later say that they continue to grow year after year. However, this contradicts the expectations of many young people, who show their fear of layoffs and think differently than their older colleagues.
An expert recently explained why the work attitude of Gen Z has nothing to do with laziness but with a different mindset about life. And this also highlights that many popular tech companies are performing significantly worse: Expert says: Gen Z is not lazy, they have different expectations of work
