CHICAGO — Five years ago, the top priority among job seekers was pay stability. Now, it’s flexible scheduling, followed by career path viability and the ability to do meaningful work.

That was the main message that Adam Robinson, founder and CEO of Hireology, delivered at his company’s Elevate conference here in October, the day before our Retail Forum and Best Dealerships To Work For celebration.

Some of the shift in workers’ priorities has to do with lessons from the coronavirus pandemic: Important life events are not guaranteed, schedules can be thrown into chaos, and loved ones — especially those who are on in years — could get sick and die quickly and possibly alone.

There’s a greater appreciation that life is fragile, finite and fickle. And that’s not to be ignored. But Robinson also argues that the shift in the balance of power from employers to workers would be happening anyway because there just aren’t enough skilled, trained adults entering the U.S. work force to fill the number of jobs available — and there won’t be for at least a decade.

“It’s demographics,” he said.

Robinson’s focus for the audience here was auto techs, but the truths of his research extend far beyond the service lane.

Health care in this country is understaffed by about a million workers, he said, and 97 percent of hotels have staffing shortages.

The changing demographics and economics also affect manufacturers, both on the factory floor and with the jobs that have traditionally been done in offices.

Just look at the push and pull over General Motors’ efforts to include regular office shifts under its “Work Appropriately” umbrella. It was on, it was off; now it’s on again, but not until late January.

Robinson asks us to think about the experience of a 25-year-old white-collar worker who has spent the bulk of their career working from home.

While some of us graybeards may recall the benefits of sitting next to your peers and conversations sparked at the office coffee pot, Generation Z workers might sincerely question how much a company values them if it insists on limiting where she or he works — and effectively where they can live.

“You just don’t have the ability as an employer to mandate to people how they’re going to work,” Robinson told me on the “Daily Drive” podcast.

Which is not to say that they can’t be persuaded to come to the office — but there has to be a reason that makes sense to them.

Is there training or specific work that is going to help their career? Will there be interactions that add meaning to their work? Can they still have the flexibility to deal with family emergencies without being shamed or hassled?

Answer yes to one or more of those questions, and you may get the buy-in you need. If not, that’s three strikes and you’re out — of the best young workers.

Damian Mills, owner of Mills Automotive Group, spoke at Elevate about cultivating leaders and other matters at the intersection of business and spirituality.

Perhaps the most important point was to humbly recognize the power that people who can hire (or fire) have over those they employ.

“When people trust you with their careers, they’re also entrusting you with their future,” he said.

We all see the Fed raising interest rates to try to blunt inflation in the U.S.

Despite the rising economic concerns, which are rightly prominent in the current election cycle, there are twice as many job openings as job seekers in this country, where unemployment sits at 3.5 percent — below what they used to call “full employment” back when I was taking econ classes.

In the ensuing decades, there has been a lot of talk about “work-life balance” as fathers and mothers and other humans try to do right by their careers — and their employers — without neglecting the people and activities that make life worth living.

The bottom-line lesson that Robinson has for employers and managers in this era and the foreseeable future: People expect their work to work in their life.

There’s no such thing work-life balance — “it’s just life.”