International employers increasingly threaten to steal New Zealand’s best generation Y talent within the finance sector by offering more attractive salaries and career opportunities than the locals.

According to new research - Generation Y: Realising the potential – conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and Mercer, young finance professionals have a clear vision of their career progression, demand job security and are motivated by money.

Baby boomers have had the biggest increase in consumer credit defaults in the past year but it hasn’t put them off taking on more debt, new Veda Advantage statistics show.

Overall consumer defaults listed with Veda Advantage for the year to September were up 6.48% on the previous year but baby boomer defaults increased at a much faster rate, by 19.37%.

In contrast, the supposedly spend-aholic members of Generation X and Y have been relatively frugal.

Generation Y workers getting their first taste of a recession are having to take unfamiliar steps to get job opportunities they once would have taken for granted.

One of these, it seems, is writing application letters rather than emailing.

As the first members of Generation Y start to celebrate their 30th birthdays, more companies are working to harness their unique talents, and the recession has brought their importance into even sharper focus.