Tough Time For Gen Y To Find Work [AUDIO]

They put in their time in college, they graduate and unfortunately, Generation Y is having a tough time finding jobs in their respective fields, so many of them are settling on low-paying work in the retail and service sectors.

That's according to a study released by Generation Y research firm Millennial Branding and PayScale, a company that collects compensation data.

"Gen-Y is a very educated generation, but unfortunately, the economy is still suffering and they are not able to find professional, white-collar jobs," said Katie Bardaro, Lead Economist at PayScale. "Many of them are taking whatever work they can find which typically doesn't require a lot of education. Some of the more common jobs held by Gen-Y are selling cell phones, selling clothing and putting together visual displays at retail stores. Unfortunately, these jobs are among the worst paying."

"The problem is, these Gen-Y graduates are coming out of school, they have a lot of debt and are trying to find jobs and they just can't. The labor pool is over-saturated with workers, so they're going head to head with older, more experienced workers and are often losing jobs to them," said Bardaro. "In order to make ends meet and to chip away at their student loans and other debt, they take whatever jobs they can find and they happen to be in retail and the service sectors."

"There is definitely a dichotomy in the Gen-Y workforce. Those who are majoring in things like engineering or math or computer science or anything that takes a strong amount of analytical thinking aren't having an issue finding a job because those industries and fields are growing. Those companies also tend to hire recent college graduates because they want to get them in young while they're super innovative," said Bardaro. "But, those who are majoring in other fields like humanities or language or communications are having a much tougher time because there are so many workers who have been in these fields much longer and experience means a lot in these areas."

The study also found that it's most common for Gen-Y to work for small companies of 100 employees or less.

"Smaller companies have a little more flexibility when it comes to hours and the interview process in general. They also may offer the ability to work from home and they may be a little more relaxed with social media policies which is important to young people," said Bardaro.