<p>I think these paragraphs sum it up, though: { The job market is fluid. Graduating seniors don’t find corporations offering them jobs that will guide them all the way to retirement. Instead they find a vast menu of information economy options, few of which they have heard of or prepared for.</p>
<p>The odyssey years are not about slacking off. There are intense competitive pressures as a result of the vast numbers of people chasing relatively few opportunities. Moreover, surveys show that people living through these years have highly traditional aspirations (they rate parenthood more highly than their own parents did) even as they lead improvising lives.
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<p>So it may be that the “wanderlust” is more a result of external factors - the job market - than a result of internal drive. </p>
<p>Think about it: The social contract their parents started under, work hard and keep a good job until retirement, is long broken. Instead, they see their parents scrambling to stay employed until retirement, say nothing about a retirement nest egg. Any wonder they have no loyalty to an employer?</p>