The workers of tomorrow are sending a message to employers today: We want to have fun, but we also want to contribute to society and make ethics a priority.

A nationwide survey of more than 37,000 undergraduate students exhibited this trend.

Topping the list was the Walt Disney Co. as the ideal employer, followed by Internet search giant Google. But then these two companies, both with reputations as fun places to work, were followed by three government agencies with completely different personas: the U.S. Department of State, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.

So what's going on here? The emergence of a new generation of workers. Just as some employers were getting accustomed to Generation X , we now have the Millennials: the people born since 1979 whose college graduation years all begin with a 2.

The Millennials are quite different from Xers, said Rachele Ferri, spokeswoman for Universum Communications, the recruitment and retention consulting firm that created the survey.

While Xers are described as self-reliant, pragmatic and skeptical, Millennials tend to have more of an idealistic streak, with their top career goals being to balance their personal and professional lives (59 percent), pursue further education (46 percent), build a sound financial base (32 percent) and contribute to society (27 percent).

Their predecessors consistently ranked financial strength as their top consideration in choosing an employer. But 39 percent of Millennials say the most important thing to them is high ethical standards; only 26 percent cited financial strength.

Perhaps it's not surprising, given that Enron collapsed as the Millennials were beginning their senior year of high school. "Balanced in mind and heart, they are eager to take on the world," Ms. Ferri said.

That helps to explain why government agencies that were barely visible in the top 100 list five years ago are now in the top five. The class of 2006, believe it or not, is the first cohort of graduates that began college after 9/11 and has been shaped by the surge of patriotism evoked by that tragedy.

At the same time, these graduates also have been exposed to such TV shows as "West Wing," "24," and "The Agency," which laid bare the inner workings of government agencies in an unprecedented, if fictionalized, way.

But it's not all patriotism and heroism for the Millennials. They take very seriously the maxim about all work and no play, as many of them saw their parents' work-life balance collapse in the hard-charging 1980s.

Ms. Ferri said Disney's No. 1 ranking came about largely because "to a lot of these students, it seems like a fun place."

But that perception, in turn, was as much a triumph of branding as of actual workplace practices, Ms. Ferri said.

"This year in particular there is a wide and strong connection between consumer branding and employer branding," she said. "You see that name and associate it with fun things," such as Disneyland, Disney World and the Disney Channel, which the Millennials have grown up with.

So what does all of this mean for employers? Maybe that it is time to ask new questions, such as: Does the public realize that we are an ethical company? Would our branding not only make someone want to buy from us, but make them want to work for us? How can we provide increasing value to our employees?

The Millennials also may rewrite the rules on compensation. Seventy-four percent of them named base salary as their top priority in compensation, but 84 percent put a strong health care plan first.

Think your company is struggling with health care now? Wait until more of these folks find out that Google's Mountain View, Calif., campus has dental care and eye care on site.