Today's entry-level employees not ready for the job, survey of executives says

(KRON) -- Entry-level Gen Z workers aren't prepared for the demands of the modern workplace, according to a majority of executives and workers surveyed in a new report. According to the survey, less than half of employees, 48%, and only 12% of mid-level execs feel entry-level employees are up to the job.

In fact, more than a quarter of execs surveyed, 27%, wouldn't even hire an entry-level employee today. Overall, 32% of adults surveyed echoed this same sentiment.

So, what's the problem with entry-level Gen Z workers?

Nearly half of executives surveyed, 49%, and over a third of employees, 37%, pointed to a lack of soft skills as the main problem with entry-level workers. Soft skills include traits like collaboration, communication and adaptability, the survey said.

Even Gen Z respondents themselves seemed to agree with this, with 40% saying soft skills were a "primary gap in entry-level job preparation," the survey said.

In fairness to Gen Z, many of them spent their college years in pandemic lockdown. That meant online classes, no in-the-workplace internships, and in many cases, a lack of day-to-day human interaction.

So, what's the takeaway? According to the survey, this indicates a "pressing need for candidates to work on foundational soft skills," along with hard skills, like coding, database management, UX design, network security, etc.