Are today's youth too self-obsessed?

They're known as Generation Y - today's older teens and 20-somethings, regarded as a self-obsessed lot who blow their pay packets as quickly as they text their friends.

But two Waikato researchers say Generation Y is no more self-centred and fickle in the workplace than the generations before them.

Waikato Management School student Rachel Jens, who has been interviewing engineering industry managers about working with Gen Yers - born between 1980 and the mid-1990s - says they cannot be easily categorised.

Are today's youth too self-obsessed?