What's Changing? - Youth

 

Please see below selected recent youth-related change.

 

See also:

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

 

january 2025

• A study from UCL found a growing shortage of mental healthcare for young people, with a 65% increase in mental health admissions and an "alarming deterioration in the mental health and wellbeing" of young people.
• Meanwhile, research into young peoples' careers from the Sutton Trust found a growing gap between middle- and working-class graduates as employers continued to exploit and underpay young people at the start of their careers.

 

April 2024

• There's a growing trend of millennials leaving their traditional careers in pursuit of a more fulfilling and less stressful lifestyle. It's referred to as the "soft life" and the concept is gaining popularity online, the Guardian reported. Millennials, having experienced the cost of living crisis and multiple recessions, are increasingly questioning the value of hard work when it doesn't lead to promised rewards. 

 

October 2023

• Economic uncertainty, escalating ownership costs and emphasis on personal growth have collided to divert many young people’s attention away from long-term savings. In fact, some may not be planning to retire at all. This doesn't mean that younger generations don’t desire to save, but 63% struggle to translate their financial knowledge into practical action.

 

August 2023

• 61% of South African youth aged 15-24 are unemployed, according to official figures, but analysts say the real number of unemployed youth, including those who have given up looking, is even higher. South Africa has the world’s highest unemployment rate, with 42% of the working-age population out of work.

 

June 2023

• An increasing number of jobs are undergoing transformations due to recent advancements in AI, leading young individuals to reconsider their future career choices, according to an The Guardian. For example, an 18-year-old told the newspaper he was planning to do an illustration degree at university after being inspired by an art school’s open day. However, after noticing more and more things being drawn by AI, he pivoted to architecture because it feels like "a more secure degree". However, careers are also threatened in industries such as journalism and law.

 

January 2023

• Teenagers and youth made their voices heard and built relationships for intergenerational collaboration at Davos 2023. They said that far more must be done to advance progress on youth priorities, from climate to inclusion, and to give young people power over decisions that impact their futures, in WEF sessions including Youth Calls to Action and Youth Agency Over Earth’s Future.

 

November 2022

• 20% of 16-24 year-olds in China were reportedly unemployed mid 2022, which is 4x the youth unemployment rate of the US, and about 50% higher than the Euro area. Although this rate since came down to 18%, for some it may be a sign that the Chinese social contract is changing.

 

October 2022

• The vast majority of 16-25-year-olds in the UK are worried about their generation's future. According to research by the Prince's Trust, one in three people in this group believe their job prospects will never recover from the pandemic. Meanwhile, separate research by Savanta showed that the experience of the pandemic had significantly impacted young people's confidence and concentration levels. On a more positive note, 50% of those polled said the pandemic had made them more resilient and slightly above half said they were more determined than before. 

 

September 2022

• In her book, Unfairly Labeled, Jessica Kriegel argued that, as with other stereotypes, generational stereotypes are harmful and inappropriate in the workplace. Young people often find these stereotypes unfair and research has confirmed that many young people feel distress at negative stereotypes - e.g., narcissism - being attributed to them. 

 

June 2022

• Further reading:
  • A $3bn bet on finding the fountain of youth - The Economist

 

December 2021

• According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report, the pandemic affected younger workers' careers more negatively than older workers'. Younger employees (those under 40) also experienced more stress and anger, lower employee engagement, and lower wellbeing than older workers. Gallup believes that these results should be a warning sign for international leaders and global employers who care about the future of their institutions. When paired with pre-COVID data showing that wellbeing has been the No. 1 concern for young job seekers, it is clear that leaders must prioritide employee wellbeing to win in the future.

 

November 2021

• Many businesses suffered from labour shortages due to the pandemic, but some industries as varied as restaurants and retail to trucking started filling the gap with an unlikely labour force: teens. However, some raised concern that working too many hours could have negative effects on adolescents’ academic performance, participation in extracurricular activities, and getting enough sleep.
• While youth comprise the largest segment of Africa's 1.3 billion-strong population, they are the least travelled, with the report showing 63% are yet to set foot in another African country. Breaking that down nationally, more than half of South Africans (56%) said they had travelled to at least one country in the continent, followed by East Africans (35%), West Africans (33%) and North Africans (22%). 

 

April 2021

• Prospect warned that a spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of generational inequality. In fact, it has intercontinental reach, impacting North America, East Asia, Australasia, South America and even, to an extent, South Asia. It disturbs the very idea of progress between parent and child, a fundamental tenet of modern life. Whether or not the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle, all societies might henceforth expect a future of generational strife. In so many corners of the world, young people are now expected to earn less, own less, have fewer children and, in some cases, have shorter lives than their parents,

 

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.