Call them Millennials, Generation Y or Generation Next—all these names are used—but demographers interviewed by ENR and many Millennials themselves agreed the names all try to classify a distinctive group of Americans born after about 1980 who are part of a wave that continues today. Each year, this rising generation of construction professionals and craftspeople gets more relevant not only because of its growing numbers in the workforce but because of the singular qualities it brings. One key quality of Millennials is that they are digital natives—they barely remember the era before computers.
Millennials told ENR they want two things from the construction industry: respect and change, and they likely will get both. The vacuum created by the large numbers of baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) now beginning to retire will draw Millennials into managerial roles at an early age.