After going through multiple rounds of interviews, impressing the hiring manager and landing the job, Gen Zers are forced to turn down the jobs offered to them due to the costs associated with starting a new one job, according to research from 2024.
A survey of more than 2,000 16 to 25-year-olds in Britain for Prince’s Trust’s annual NatWest Youth Index 2024 found that the cost of living is making today’s youth worry about their future and limiting their career ambitions .
From the need to buy a new uniform (or rather work clothes) to issuing a travel card to clock in at work – it all adds up. One in ten unemployed Generation Zers has had to turn down a job because of such costs.
Worryingly, money confidence has reached its lowest level on record in the 15 years since the index began monitoring the wellbeing of young people in Britain. More than half of respondents fear they will never be financially secure. money is enough to put pressure on more than a third of them.
This is especially acute among young women; 60% worry that the rising cost of living will prevent them from achieving financial security. Meanwhile, the halves are afraid that they will not earn enough to support a family. By comparison, about 45% of young men have the same concerns.
So where can they go for money advice? TikTok of course. The number of 16- to 25-year-olds surveyed who turn to the social media platform for lessons in topics such as ‘loud budgeting’ has doubled since 2022, according to the survey.
The trust said the findings showed that the current economic climate is having a “drastic impact” on the “confidence, wellbeing and future aspirations” of young potential workers, especially among those from the poorest backgrounds – and generally: it affects their mental health.
“This trap, with poor mental health and employment problems compounding each other, threatens to entrap this generation unless we take immediate action,” said Jonathan Townsend, the UK chief executive of the Prince’s Trust.
As Townsend notes, unemployed young people find themselves in a vicious cycle where being unemployed is bad for their mental health – but at the same time their mental health affects their ability to work.
As many as 40% of respondents said they suffer from mental health problems and a third fear it will stop them from achieving their career goals.
For a significant proportion of young workers, their mental health is already getting in the way of their work: one in five have missed school or work in the past year, 18% have felt too stuck to even apply for a job, and 12% couldn’t do not recommend going to interviews.
Meanwhile, one in ten young people from poorer backgrounds have left their jobs this year due to mental health problems.
Separate research shows that even when young workers show their faces, an overwhelming majority miss the equivalent of a day’s work every week. Essentially, they come to the office, but they are so mentally absent that they struggle to actually accomplish anything nearly 50 days out of the year.
Despite the bleak findings, Townsend says the research offers “a window of hope” because Generation Z has outlined exactly how employers can intervene to help them.
For a third of respondents, this looks like support in securing work experience, advice on CV writing and interview behavior, and training on building job-specific skills.
“The vast majority of young people tell us that they remain determined to achieve their goals,” Townsend concludes. “What they need, however, is practical support and guidance to overcome the challenges they face, especially as the working world continues to change rapidly.”
A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on February 5, 2024.
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com
