Senior Researcher Petteri Puska: “In these uncertain times, highly educated people want competitive pay, good remote work options, and job security”

A good salary has established itself as the most important criterion when choosing a job, according to our 2025 Employer Reputation Survey. Petteri Puska, a leading researcher at Reputation and Trust Analytics, believes this trend is linked to the search for security in an uncertain global climate.

Reputation and Trust Analytics’ Employer Reputation Research for the eleventh time in 2025. A total of 2,551 highly educated professionals in the technical and business fields responded to the survey.

Each respondent listed the three most important factors for them when choosing a job. Fifty-one percent of respondents selected a good salary.

A good salary narrowly emerged as the most important factor in choosing a job in the 2021 survey, with 43 percent of respondents citing it as a key factor. In 2022, 50 percent of respondents already listed salary as one of their top criteria.

“The increase from 2021 to 2022 was enormous. I think the underlying factors were the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and rising interest rates. As uncertainty grew on many fronts, people began seeking basic security,” analyzed Petteri Puska, lead researcher at Reputation and Trust Analytics.

The importance of interesting job tasks is on the decline

At the same time as the importance of salary has increased, fewer and fewer respondents have cited interesting job duties and the meaningfulness of work as among their most important criteria.

Before the pandemic, the interest of a job was sometimes seen as a more important factor than salary. In 2025, it will be at its lowest level on record, at 31 percent.

“This is certainly linked to the fact that, in these uncertain times, people want to meet their basic needs, such as making a living. When calmer times return, the importance of meaningful work and interesting tasks will surely rise again,” Puska said.

“Among the youngest respondents, there is already a slight increase in the perceived meaningfulness of work.”

Young people aren't looking for the opportunity to work remotely

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ability to work remotely has become an increasingly important factor in choosing a job. By 2025, as many as 30 percent of working adults considered it one of the most important criteria.

“Remote work is pretty much taken for granted these days; people want flexibility in their work and the ability to manage their own daily lives. The exception to this are students in the field; among them, the possibility of remote work isn’t even among the top ten criteria in the study,” Puska explains.

“This would suggest that young people, at the start of their careers, are eager to come to the workplace to learn—and at the same time to network and lay the groundwork for their career development. Their experience with remote schooling and online learning during the pandemic may also be a contributing factor.”

More and more people are looking for job security

Puska also highlights job stability, which reached its highest level in recorded history this year. One in five respondents listed job stability among their most important criteria.

“In a nutshell, you could say that in these uncertain times, highly educated people want competitive pay, good remote work options, and job security, while they are willing to compromise on factors related to job interest and social interaction,” Puska summarizes.

Reputation and Trust Analytics’ Employer Reputation Research for the eleventh time between March and May 2025. The target group consisted of highly educated professionals and students in the technology and business sectors. A total of 2,551 respondents participated in the survey.

In the experiment, respondents were asked to select the three most important criteria from a list of 24 if they were choosing a job from among several offers. The list was compiled based on Reputation and Trust Analytics’ workplace surveys.

The study was conducted in collaboration with the Finnish Association of Graduate Economists, the Finnish Association of Business Graduates, TEK, the Finnish Union of Professional Engineers, and subject-specific and alumni organizations in these fields.

Petteri Puskaa was interviewed by Anu Räsänen, a communications specialist at Reputation and Trust Analytics.