Future You Memo No. 4
First, some numbers:
25% - Only 25% of Gen Z teens believe traditional college is the only path to getting a good job.*
1.1 Million - Amazon employs 1.1 million people in the US, up 18% from 2021.*
$97.5 Billion - California Governor, Gavin Newsom, announces state budget surplus of record $97.5 billion
Gen Z skeptical of 4-year degrees
Only about half of those polled said they are likely to pursue a four-year plan. With their options increasing and with uneasiness over their own financial futures growing because of the pandemic, this next wave of education seekers is poised to have vastly different outcomes than their predecessors.
Those options include career and technical education and apprenticeships but also include a more staggered approach to education and lifelong learning that could help them better position themselves for jobs in a digital economy and avoid potentially big costs of a four-year degree.
Read more at University Business
What Gen Z thinks about work
Over the past two years, young millennials and members of Gen Z have created an abundance of memes and pithy commentary about their generational disillusionment toward work. The jokes, which correspond with the rise of anti-work ideology online, range from shallow and shameless (“Rich housewife is the goal”) to candid and pessimistic.
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The reality is much more complicated. American workers across various ages, industries, and income brackets have experienced heightened levels of fatigue, burnout, and general dissatisfaction toward their jobs since the pandemic’s start. The difference is, more young people are airing these indignations and jaded attitudes on the internet, often to viral acclaim.
Today’s young people are not the first to experience economic hardship, but they are the first to broadcast their struggles in ways that, just a decade ago, might alienate potential employers or be deemed too radical. Such attitudes might abate with age, but the Great Resignation has inspired a generation of workers to speak critically — and cynically — about the role of labor in their lives. As a result, zoomers (and millennials, to an extent) have been touted, perhaps undeservedly, as beacons of anti-capitalism and pivotal figures in the nationwide quitting spree.
Continue reading Gen Z does not dream of Labor (Vox)
Worker Readiness Concerns Among Gen Z’s
LHH's Readiness Index focused on the financial sector in the US, UK, and France, where 2,000 participants across age groups were tested.
Some highlights:
Gen Z is the most vulnerable group of workers. Lack of in-person workplace connections, training opportunities, and work-life balance have all impacted how Gen Z feels about remote work and their careers overall. The study revealed that Gen Z is not only the most anxious and easily influenced by its peers when it comes to their career paths, but also lacks confidence in their skills and roles in the workplace.
Workers remain anxious about technology replacing them. More than one-third of respondents were identified as "Technophobes," expressing real worry over whether their skills would have a place in a world increasingly dominated by technology.
via LHH
Till next time….
You live out the confusions until they become clear. - Anais Nin
Cover photo: Nick Miller