Generally speaking that describes many of them. When I worked for AT&T Core I installed and maintained Special Circuits, most of the time it was cake work but once in a while my manager would toss me some rough jobs knowing I would get them done with a minimum of bitching. Due to my family of skills being rather broad I also was assigned new hires to ride with me for 6 weeks before being assigned a van and working on their own, over the span of 28 years I trained maybe 50 Tech's. What I discovered with the younger (under 30) was an aversion to do anything involving tools or working outside, manual labor and sweating was just not what they where cut out for, out of the half dozen or so Millennials I trained only one lasted past the 6 month probation period and one quit, another quit after just a week, it was rainy season and he couldn't handle working in the rain even with raingear on. And the job wasn't minimum wage, a new hire depending how he tested could start at $21 per hour and max out at $36 per hour.
I noticed that the poor workers were the ones who drank big gulps in the morning instead of coffee. Egads!
What we in telecommunications ran into a lot was people who couldn't pass a drug test, a rep in HR advised me it was something like 80% of the applicants failed even though they had enough time 4 to 6 weeks to clean up.
What positions are you hiring for? It kind of sounds like you are hiring for manual labor, which millennial aren't as trained for, and this type of job doesn't usually pay as well. One thing you can do in this economy is to try is offering better wages and benefits to attract more qualified candidates.
I heard The old line, "You just can't get good help anymore" going around since I was a kid in the 60's. The reality is that the people who complain about it, don't want to pay anything for it. No, You are not going to get gold employees, on a lead budget. Try paying a little more, and you will be surprised how many good people you'll see.
It doesn't always work that way, my employer AT&T pays top dollar for field techs and still has major problems finding people who actually want to do some work.
I'm sure there are exceptions, but it seems these people you speak of, certainly are not afraid of losing their jobs.
They just walk away once they discover they might have to sweat a little to get paid $52K per year to start.
They obviously have better opportunities. A lot of people are out of work, $52 k, was nice 20 years ago, but nothing special now.
But that's no longer happening, the younger generation seems not to be motivated by making a decent living, what seems to matter to them is being able to be paid for doing no physical work, what so ever. They seem to just want a internet connection and to be paid for using it.
That's all well and good, but you cannot support a family with an internet connection. These people who want to play games online, will not be in competition for jobs.
My wife and I have been looking for help for 25 years. I'd pay them $20 an hour for doing yard and ranch labor if they worked like we do.. but before I'll pay someone that much to lean on a rake ..I'll just do it myself.
Many of them around here are millionaires, they work hard, they save every dime they can spare, they invest in land and work it.
I'm on the border!.. most of the people I am talking about ARE Mexicans! They get gov't benefits so they aren't that interested in actually doing much work. The best workers I've had have been Anglos.. but they move on.. I guess because of our culture here being so alien. That idiom "doing the work Americans won't do" has always been a big bunch of BS to me..
If they don't or won't shop in Mexico.. it is fairly expensive here. When I am asked "how's business?" I reply, "it's slow. but it doesn't matter much, frijoles and tortillas are still cheap" (I say this in Spanish.. BTW)
It'd be a long trip to work only on Saturdays! (it'd be a long trip if you lived in the next town in the US, it's 60 miles away!)
Too bad for me. I don't have a car. But I could hitchhike and hope I don't get picked up by a cereal murderer.