There is no shortage of hand-wringing about young people and the hours they spend in front of screens. From the U.S. Surgeon General’s recommendation to add a warning label to social media to psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s recent book about the link between time spent online and mental health, concerns about the amount of time young people spend online are at a fever pitch.

Some have made the assumption that, since young people are addicted to their screens, this will translate into their work preferences. If this generation of digital natives prefers screens to real life, then they must want to work remotely too, right?

But our new report from the RBC Young People and Economic Inclusion Longitudinal Study provides a different perspective on how young people (15 to 35 years of age) view their work environments.

Our team at the Youth & Innovation Project at the University of Waterloo found that 37 per cent of 15 to 19 year old Canadians prefer to work entirely in-person, a higher percentage than any other age group.

In addition, 70 per cent of those between the ages of 20 and 24 have a preference for hybrid work — a significantly higher percentage than those older than 24 years of age or younger than 20 years of age.

Our six-year study (2022-2028), developed in partnership with the RBC Foundation, aims to reveal the trends that are shaping the employment experiences of young Canadians.

As of May 2024, a total of 23,319 young people have opted into this study. However, we have not yet surveyed the vast majority of these people, which means the data presented in this report represents only a small first cohort and is not yet........

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