This economy will leave a mark on Gen Z
The Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut may make it feel like we’ve finally tamped down inflation. But it’s not over till it’s over. The Fed’s goal is 2% annually. But inflation and everything the Fed has done to tame it, like interest rate hikes that have created prolonged uncertainty, will leave a scar on the economy. Perhaps especially on those who are just starting their financial lives: Generation Z.
When Nithin Weerasinghe was younger, his high school teachers encouraged him to pursue tech.
“Technology is, like, the future. Everyone wants a computer scientist in the future. You won’t have to worry about having a job,” he said.
Except that’s all he’s worried about. Weerasinghe is 25, lives with his parents near Detroit and has a master’s in computer science. He’s been job hunting for a year now and even has a spreadsheet for it.
“At this point it’s more than 600 applications,” he said.
This spreadsheet is Weerasinghe’s economy. He’s not so focused on the price of eggs or his yet-to-exist 401(k). He needs a job.
“I hear a lot of things about, like, the economy is supposed to be good. Being unemployed just feels, like, really bad. Not having a certainty about the future,” he said.
Uncertainty is the theme for a lot of young people.
“This generation’s often called the recession babies,” said Corey Seemiller, a Wright State University professor who studies Gen Zers, or people born between 1995 and 2010. “My daughter was actually born in 2009. So it’s not like they remember the recession. But what they do experience and have experienced was sort of a tightening of the belts.”
They saw their parents lose jobs. Maybe downsize their homes. And Seemiller said everyone told them, “Don’t worry! Life-changing economic events don’t happen that often.”
“And then COVID comes along,” she said. And along with it? Inflation.
Seemiller said this lifetime of unpredictability has made Gen Zers risk-averse. They have a scarcity mindset like the GI Generation — people who came of age during the Great Depression.
“What happens between ages 14 and 24 in our lives tend to impact us in ways that we carry with us through our lifetimes more so than events that happen at other stages of our lives,” Seemiller said.
The Gen Zers I talked to can’t think too far ahead.
“At this point, my main goal is to get to something that will allow me to progress,” said Claire O’Brocta. She’s 23, lives in Baltimore and works at a planetarium and an escape room, both for $15 an hour. She wants one job that pays more.
“It’s really difficult right now. I feel like it’s expensive to live and hard to get a job,” she said.
She said most of her friends are in the same boat.