0:02

Data is everywhere, but is it

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ready for consumption? Morningstar

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developed the language of global investment

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data, so you have the right ingredients

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to help you shine. Morningstar,

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where data speaks. Here's

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your money briefing for Tuesday,

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April 22nd. I'm Mariana Aspuru for

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The Wall Street Journal. You

0:30

A tough job market can mean

0:32

hours of networking, constant

0:34

applications, and rounds of

0:36

interviews. That's pushed some young

0:38

workers to take a bigger

0:41

interest in the family business. What

0:43

you saw before was that people really

0:46

tended to stigmatize for turning to their family

0:48

business. There was this sense that it

0:50

was taking the easy way out. They wanted

0:52

to strike out on their own. Now

0:54

we're seeing a change. We're seeing more support.

0:56

towards that decision. We're seeing

0:58

more understanding of it and really the most

1:01

excitement that we've seen in

1:03

a generation. After the break,

1:05

we'll hear more from Wall Street Journal

1:07

reporter Rachel Wolfe about how they're navigating it.

1:09

You Data

1:27

is everywhere. When

1:29

orchestrated properly, it sings. At

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Morningstar, we analyze and enrich

1:34

data, making it actionable and

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powerful for you. Morningstar,

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where data speaks. More

1:47

workers are choosing to work for

1:50

mom and dad. Wall

1:52

Street Journal reporter Rachel Wolf joins me.

1:55

Rachel, you looked at some data

1:57

that tells us that there's been an

1:59

increase in kids joining the family

2:01

business. How much of a shift

2:03

is it? the

2:07

share of small businesses that

2:09

employ a young adult child of

2:11

an owner. So we looked

2:13

at it very specifically with the

2:15

help of payroll provider, Gusto.

2:17

And it's up 13 % just

2:19

in the past year. So it's

2:21

January to January. And

2:23

then it has actually doubled

2:25

since 2018. So we're seeing pretty

2:27

significant movement. It's still a

2:29

small share of businesses that are

2:31

doing this. but that change is

2:33

very interesting. What

2:35

are some of the primary reasons why they're

2:37

opting to work for the family business? Small

2:40

business analysts told me about both push

2:42

and pull factors for young people

2:44

joining that family business. Some

2:47

of the push factors include the fact

2:49

that this generation that came of age

2:51

during the pandemic, now they're

2:53

worried about being replaced by AI

2:55

and the effects of an escalating trade

2:57

war. And then there's this pull

3:00

factor, which is the Gen X and

3:02

Boomer parents who own the vast

3:04

majority of small and medium -sized businesses

3:06

in the country are looking towards retirement

3:08

and trying to figure out their

3:10

succession planning. So feeling a little bit

3:12

more urgency about getting their younger

3:14

family members involved. How new

3:17

is this? Was it

3:19

more common for previous generations to

3:21

join the family business? There's

3:23

definitely a mindset shift from a

3:25

decade ago. The analysts I

3:27

spoke to told me what you

3:30

saw before was that people really

3:32

tended to stigmatize for turning to their

3:34

family business. There was this sense that

3:36

it was making the easy way out.

3:38

They wanted to strike out on their

3:40

own. Now we're seeing a change. We're

3:42

seeing more support towards that decision. We're

3:45

seeing more understanding of it and really

3:47

the most excitement that we've seen in a

3:49

generation. parents, and

3:51

I guess now their bosses,

3:53

feeling about it. Overall, they

3:55

seem really thrilled that their kids want

3:57

to join their businesses. I spoke

4:00

to a metal fabrication company in Minnesota,

4:02

and the dad took over the

4:04

business from his own dad and

4:06

really did not expect his sons

4:08

to join the business. Neither of

4:10

them studied anything having to do

4:12

with manufacturing, but both of them

4:14

have ended up joining in recent

4:16

years and now plan to take

4:18

it over. It was

4:20

a bit of a learning curve because they

4:22

needed a little bit extra skill training, which

4:24

is something else I talk about in the

4:26

piece that there can be bit of a

4:28

higher barrier. There are certainly unique challenges to

4:30

having your mom or dad as

4:32

your boss, but everybody I spoke to

4:34

seemed to really enjoy it and

4:36

it seemed like it was going really

4:38

well. Yeah. I mean, I can

4:40

only imagine you spend a lot of

4:42

time with your coworkers if those

4:44

coworkers were your family. You're going

4:46

to need different skill sets. Yeah, I'm

4:48

not sure it would be for me, but

4:50

it definitely seems to be working for

4:53

all the people I spoke to for the

4:55

story. Rachel, this is a

4:57

really interesting shift because it involves, for

4:59

some people you spoke to in the

5:01

story, foregoing what they

5:03

studied and got a degree in

5:05

to work for the family business. How

5:07

have they been navigating that? So I

5:09

spoke to somebody who majored

5:11

in music performance on the Euphonium,

5:13

which is a type of

5:16

small tuba. And he had

5:18

no plans to go work for

5:20

his mom's web consulting firm, but

5:22

he graduated into the pandemic. And

5:24

so he decided to come on

5:26

full time to work for the

5:28

family business. And again, he really

5:30

loves it. He's a little bit

5:32

less sold on. taking it

5:34

over, he's not sure yet. He doesn't know he's ready

5:36

to commit for just working for this one company

5:38

for the rest of his life. His mom is really

5:40

into the idea of him taking it over. But

5:43

overall, they seem to his mom and

5:45

him to love working together. Like, there

5:47

are definitely specific challenges. His mom told

5:49

me about adjusting, his name

5:51

is Max, adjusting Max's job description to better

5:53

fit his interests, even if it wasn't necessarily

5:55

exactly what was best for the company and

5:57

trying to prevent Max from having to work

5:59

on things that he didn't want to do, even

6:02

if they were necessary. But Over time

6:04

his mom has just

6:06

realized even though you always want to

6:08

see your kid happy happy happy

6:10

Jobs the job sometimes you have to

6:12

do things you don't want to do and

6:14

so I think it's just been an adjustment

6:16

over time But yeah, they get along so

6:18

well. It was honestly really cool to talk

6:20

to talk to all these people What are

6:22

some of the big takeaways that you got

6:24

from reporting the story Rachel? Yeah, I think

6:26

that it's okay to use your family as a

6:28

networking tool and there's no

6:30

stigma in that, especially in a

6:33

tough job market. You have

6:35

to use the resources you have

6:37

at your disposal during

6:39

a tougher time than we've

6:41

seen in a while for landing an entry

6:43

level role. That's WSJ

6:45

reporter Rachel Wolfe, and that's it for

6:47

your money briefing. This episode

6:49

is produced by me with

6:51

supervising producer Melanie Roy and deputy

6:53

editor Chris Sinsley. I'm Mariana

6:55

Aspuru for the Wall Street Journal. Thanks

6:57

for listening. Data

7:16

is everywhere. When

7:18

orchestrated properly, it sings. At

7:21

Morningstar, we analyze and enrich

7:23

data, making it actionable and

7:25

powerful for you. Morningstar,

7:28

where data speaks.