Imagine you polled Gen Z about where they really want to work after graduating college. You might expect them to rattle off the names of some Big Tech companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon—and, for the most part, you’d be right, according to a new survey by Axios/Generation Lab.
However, the second-most-desired institution among America’s young workers might surprise you: It’s the federal government.
Or so says the survey, which polled a representative sample of 2,067 college students and recent grads across America from February 28 to March 13. The results showed that some tech companies are more popular than others—and working for the federal government is more appealing than most. Here’s the percentage breakdown among respondents:
- Google: 16%
- The federal government: 6%
- Apple: 5%
- Disney: 2.2%
- NASA: 2.1%
- Amazon: 2%
- Microsoft: 1.8%
- Tesla: 1.6%
- Patagonia, Pfizer, Spotify: 1% (tie)
Interestingly, Axios says the federal government snagged the second-most-desired employer spot among both young Democrats and young Republicans. As for Google, the company swept the No. 1 spot for both women and men, and Asian, Black, and Hispanic students.
However, the poll also revealed a bit of incongruity between the companies Gen Z respondents viewed as “doing good in the world” and the companies they wanted to work at most. Patagonia took the top “doing good” spot, despite coming in only tied for ninth place overall.
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