Owning a home is not high on a millennial's priority list.

Momentum Corporate's latest research has found that only 40% of employed millennials want to own a home - and this while nearly 80% of the generation of baby boomers believe that owning a home is a high priority.

"Owning a home is not a big thing for millennials. They don’t need a home when there is Airbnb. They are about experiences rather than owning things. How do we bring the concept of long-term saving to a generation who think like that?" Momentum Corporate's public sector head Nomha Kumalo asked at a roadshow in Durban on Thursday.

She explained that the older generation strives for retirement‚ while younger generations view retirement as a transition.

Kumalo said employers and the financial services industry would have to gain a deeper understanding of the ever-changing workforce in order to stay one step ahead of workforce trends.

"People‚ just like the world we live in‚ continue to evolve at a rapid pace and a continuous multi-faceted research approach is therefore required to stay abreast of these changes‚" she said.

Dion Chang of Flux Trends explained that smart contracts‚ chat bots and the wide-reaching future effects of blockchain technology were the trends to watch while digital transformation had spawned a number of new economies.

“There’s the ‘sharing economy’‚ steered by apps like Uber and Airbnb‚ which has driven the idea that you don’t need to own something in order to use it; the on-demand economy – most prevalent in food-delivery businesses – which offers convenient access to goods and services; and the growing gig economy‚ which has seen a shift of preference towards contract-based assignments rather than full-time employment‚” he said.