You know I’m a survey guy, it’s one of the services that I most often provide to my clients. Whether annual “engagement assessments”, ongoing “pulse polls” to targeted employees, exit interviews, or work on the customer side of the equation, I know the business, it’s something I’ve been doing now for over 25 years.

So another new warning about the lack of young workers came out today. Guess what? There aren’t enough 25-44 year olds floating around to fill current jobs or pay for the upcoming retirement bill of the boomers. Chicken Little just came by my office and said the sky was falling, the sky was falling.

According to the most recent census, the number of Americans ages 25 to 44 has dropped 1.5% since 2000. According to William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution, “Older industrial states are facing a double whammy: the loss of the younger, high-fertility workers and a diminished attraction of immigrants.”

Only a demographer would use the phrase “high-fertility workers”. Excellent…

Younger and middle-aged workers are leaving the northeast in droves and are relocating to warmer (and more affordable) climates. Vermont, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York are losing their workers to Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Utah and Idaho. I must admit, those last two surprised me, but the statistics don’t lie.

Worse yet, employees 25-34 only stay with their current employer for 3 years before they move on to their next company. By the time they are 30 they have already burned through seven jobs. The average nearly doubles for those workers 35-44 who have a tenure of 5 years. Nothing to write home to mom about, but better than the overall average of 4 years.

So, younger workers leave earlier, and tend to leave “permanently” more often. That’s tough for any business trying to succeed. But is all hope lost? Of course not. Many younger employees stay longer than three years; they feel good about the training and development they’ve received and the advancement opportunities that lie ahead. They work for an ethical company who cares about the environment and giving back to the community. They get along with their boss and their co-workers, but unlike their parents, work-life balance is more important, especially those in the sandwich generation.

People are going to move, especially younger workers who tend to have fewer ties to their community. Warm weather wins out over cold. A reasonable cost of living is more alluring than an expensive one. And good bosses beat out bad bosses any day.

Most places have enough employees of all ages to meet their workforce needs, or come pretty darned close. A study from back in 2006 found employees admitted wasting 2 hours of time at work each day. It doesn’t take a statistician to understand that number equates to a typical business needing 25% more staff than is actually required to get the current workload completed.

Again… is there a brain drain problem in the NE, or is it a Lost Boss issue? You be the judge.