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Seven in 10 young job seekers who recently graduated from college or are about to do so say they would rather be their own boss than work for someone else, forgoing job security, the American Institute of CPAs reported Thursday.
Fifty-three percent of young adults in the study said they would probably start their own business someday.
"It's not surprising that the generation currently entering the labor market is looking beyond the traditional approach of rising through the ranks in a well-defined career path," Gregory Anton, chairman of the AICPA's National CPA Financial Literacy Commission, said in a statement.
"Developments in technology and the internet have made it easier than ever to start a business. However, they have not necessarily made it easier to succeed."
The research was based on an online MAVY poll conducted within the U.S. last September among 1,984 adults age 18 to 34 who had graduated from college in the past 24 months or would graduate in the next 12 months.
Join the Crowd
According to the report, millennials and Generation Z aren't the only folks looking to launch their own business. Each month, about half a million people become new business owners, and eight in 10 survive the first year. But time is not on their side: Only about half pass the five-year hurdle, and just one in three make it to 10 years.
"I don't know of anyone who sets out to start a business that closes in three years," Teresa Mason, CPA member of the AICPA Private Companies Practice Section Executive Committee, said in the statement. "But the reality is, the first few years are almost always the hardest. That means every financial decision needs to be well thought out, with a clear eye to the future."
The AICPA's financial literacy commission offered some suggestions to help entrepreneurially minded young people set themselves up for success.
