---
title: 'BofA: Employers Like Gen-Xers Twice as Much as Millennials, 6X Boomers'
description: Bank of America's Small Business report shows that owners vastly prefer Gen-X employees over everyone else.
authors:
  - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann
    url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/
    at_money_since: 2015
    articles: 160
    covers:
      - Business
      - Banking
      - Career Advice
      - Credit
      - Credit Cards
      - Economy and Politics
      - Education
      - Housing
      - Identity Theft
      - Insurance
      - Investing
      - Lifestyle
      - Personal Finance
      - Professional Services
      - Shopping
      - Taxes
      - Technology
    social:
      - https://x.com/ewolffmann
    former_staff: true
published: '2016-05-09T19:52:21.000Z'
modified: '2016-05-09T19:52:21.000Z'
section: Business
tags:
  - Generations
  - hiring
  - pubdesk
word_count: 159
canonical: https://money.com/small-business-owners-prefer-gen-x/
type: Article
source: structured-blocks
---

> **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/).

![Bank Of America Headquarters As Revenue Seen Declining In 2016](https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-528463752.jpg)

Bank of America's spring [Small Business Owner Report](http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/files/press_kit/additional/Small_Business_Owner_Report_-_Spring_2016.pdf) is out, and it has a few interesting bits -- for example, only 15% vote purely based on their perspective as a small business owner.

Among the various takeaways from the survey was some insight into how small business owners hire people. The first major takeaway from the study was that education may not be considered as critical a filter on resumes. Asked to evaluate the most important hiring criteria, employers chose skill level by a huge margin, at 49%. Behind were fit with company culture at 24%, work experience at 24%, and education in last with just 3%.

Besides tending to favor skill over any other quality, small business owners overwhelmingly preferred Gen-X employees over other generations. While Baby Boomers were fairly unloved at 8%, Gen-X employees were preferred by 47% of employees, a factor of almost 6X. Millennials were in the middle, preferred by 26% of small business owners.

```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
      "@id": "https://money.com/small-business-owners-prefer-gen-x/#breadcrumb",
      "itemListElement": [
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 1,
          "name": "Home",
          "item": "https://money.com"
        },
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 2,
          "name": "Business",
          "item": "https://money.com/business/"
        },
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 3,
          "name": "Small Business",
          "item": "https://money.com/small-business/"
        },
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 4,
          "name": "BofA: Employers Like Gen-Xers Twice as Much as Millennials, 6X Boomers"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "@type": "WebSite",
      "@id": "https://money.com/#website",
      "url": "https://money.com",
      "name": "Money",
      "publisher": {
        "@id": "https://money.com/#organization"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "WebPage",
      "@id": "https://money.com/small-business-owners-prefer-gen-x/#webpage",
      "url": "https://money.com/small-business-owners-prefer-gen-x/",
      "name": "BofA: Employers Like Gen-Xers Twice as Much as Millennials, 6X Boomers",
      "isPartOf": {
        "@id": "https://money.com/#website"
      },
      "datePublished": "2016-05-09T19:52:21.000Z",
      "mainEntity": {
        "@id": "https://money.com/small-business-owners-prefer-gen-x/"
      },
      "inLanguage": "en-US",
      "breadcrumb": {
        "@id": "https://money.com/small-business-owners-prefer-gen-x/#breadcrumb"
      },
      "dateModified": "2016-05-09T19:52:21.000Z"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Article",
      "headline": "BofA: Employers Like Gen-Xers Twice as Much as Millennials, 6X Boomers",
      "articleSection": "Business",
      "image": [
        {
          "@type": "ImageObject",
          "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-528463752.jpg",
          "width": 4000,
          "height": 2469,
          "caption": "Bank Of America Headquarters As Revenue Seen Declining In 2016"
        }
      ],
      "author": [
        {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "Ethan Wolff-Mann",
          "url": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/",
          "@id": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/#author",
          "sameAs": [
            "https://x.com/ewolffmann"
          ]
        }
      ],
      "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization",
      "datePublished": "2016-05-09T19:52:21.000Z",
      "description": "Bank of America's Small Business report shows that owners vastly prefer Gen-X employees over everyone else.",
      "abstract": "Bank of America's Small Business report shows that owners vastly prefer Gen-X employees over everyone else.",
      "@id": "https://money.com/small-business-owners-prefer-gen-x/",
      "inLanguage": "en-US",
      "dateModified": "2016-05-09T19:52:21.000Z",
      "wordCount": 159,
      "keywords": [
        "Generations",
        "hiring",
        "pubdesk"
      ],
      "about": [
        {
          "@type": "Thing",
          "name": "Business",
          "sameAs": [
            "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business"
          ]
        },
        {
          "@type": "Thing",
          "name": "Small business",
          "sameAs": [
            "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_business"
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
```