What's Changing? - Youth

Please see below selected recent youth-related change.

See also:

• What's New? - Youth
• What's Changing? - Childhood

November 2020

• A global survey by the Financial Times revealed the toll that the pandemic is taking on the under-30s and how that’s translating into increasing anger towards older generations. According to the OECD, those aged 25 and under are 2.5 times more likely to be without a job because of the pandemic as those between 26 and 64. For example, the number of US 18 to 29-year-olds living with their parents is the highest ever recorded, beating even the spike during WWII.
• Younger workers who started remote jobs during the pandemic are facing the harsh reality that they won’t get the opportunity for growth and connection from traditional office settings, at least for the time being. BBC Worklife reported some Gen Zers feel adrift, citing a study that shows that Gen Z workers are three times more likely to seek help for mental health issues, and a survey where 82% said they feel "less connected". 
• According to New World, Same Humans, young people will look to businesses to offer new forms of support, education, and assistance. Business review site Yelp launched an initiative to help young people move out of their parents’ place. 

September 2020

• More young adults are moving back in with their parents in the wake of the coronavirus. 52% of young Americans live with their parents. The last time people cohabitated like this was during the Great Depression, noted Future Today Institute.

August 2020

• A generation of young people could have their employment prospects “permanently scarred” by the pandemic, warned a report from the International Labour Organisation. Those under 30 have been particularly badly hit, due to large numbers working in badly affected sectors such as hospitality and retail. The report also said that an already tough employment market is set to become harder for young people, with the economic slump making it more difficult for those leaving education to find roles. The ILO urged governments to combat the problem through “urgent, large-scale and targeted” policies, such as youth hiring subsidies and training.

May 2020

• The experience of youth is marked by a series of milestones - not least the public exams and graduation ceremonies that were cancelled all over the world by the coronavirus pandemic. Such initiation rites matter. They forge lifelong memories. Universities and students plugged this gap with ingenuity. In Japan, robots were mobilised to stand in for graduates accepting their scrolls of honour; and in Georgia, a group of students replicated the real-life experience of a graduation ceremony in the virtual world of the video game, Minecraft. 

May 2019

• Youth around the world planned to strike, again, for climate action. The Fridays for Future movement, inspired by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg, planned over 2,000 demonstrations in more than 200 countries on every continent.

October 2018

• More than 9 out of ten teenagers in Kenya, Mexico, China, Nigeria, and India are positive about their futures, according to a new IPSOS poll. Their optimism contrasts with bleaker outlooks in Europe, where just 65 percent of teens in Sweden, 70 percent in France, and fewer than 80 percent in Germany and the UK see brighter days ahead.

September 2018

• The RSA launched a report ,‘Teenagency: how young people are changing the world’, which revealed the continued gulf between public perceptions and the reality of young people’s experiences and aspirations. It explored how to give every young person, from every background, the opportunity to engage in the kinds of social action that meet their altruistic impulse and creative potential. Thisn, believes the RSA is critical to delivering the “double benefit” of helping them develop personally, while making a positive difference to their community.