Generation Z

Statistical projections from the United Nations in 2019 suggest that, by 2020, the people of Niger would have a median age of 15.2, Mali 16.3, Chad 16.6, Somalia, Uganda, and Angola all 16.7, the Democratic Republic of the Congo 17.0, Burundi 17.3, Mozambique and Zambia both 17.6. (This means that more than half of their populations were born in the first two decades of the twenty-first century.) These are the world's youngest countries by median age. While a booming population can induce substantial economic growth, if healthcare, education, and economic needs were not met, there would be chronic youth unemployment, low productivity, and social unrest. Investing in human capital is crucial.[54]

Population pyramid of China in 2016

China's fertility rate dropped from 5.91 children per woman in 1967 to 1.6 in 2012. The one-child policy is a factor behind this development. According to the Chinese Central Government, the one-child policy prevented approximately 400 million births. Experts continue to debate this figure, however. Some argue that such a drop in fertility is typical for a rapidly industrializing country while others believe it actually accelerates the aging process. According to demographer Zhen Binwen of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China's labor force would peak in 2015. Almost 7% of China's population were 65 years or older in 2000, a benchmark after which the United Nations considers a population to be aging. China is in fact aging quite quickly. UN figures show that China's ratio of people aged 60 and over increased 3.8% between 2000 and 2010, higher than the global average of 3% between 1950 and 2010. Therefore, China is one of the developing countries with aging populations. The nation's quickly growing and export-driven economy will slow down, as the advantage of abundant and cheap labor fades away. Life expectancy in China rose from 43 in 1960 to 3 in 2010, thanks to improved standards of living, better nutrition, and access to healthcare and education.[55]

As a result of cultural ideals, government policy, and modern medicine, there have been severe gender imbalances in China and India. According to the United Nations, in 2018, there were 112 Chinese males aged 15 to 29 for every hundred females in that age group. That number in India was 111. China had a total of 34 million excess males and India 37 million, more than the entire population of Malaysia. Together, China and India had a combined 50 million of excess males under the age of 20. Such a discrepancy fuels loneliness epidemics, human trafficking (from elsewhere in Asia, such as Cambodia and Vietnam), and prostitution, among other societal problems.[56]

Like the European Union (and unlike the United States), Japan has a declining population. Coupled with an exceptionally long life expectancy (85 years for women and 78 for men, as of 2005) and one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, this means that by 2050, 30% of Japanese will be over the age of 60. While the government has been introducing various incentives for people to have more children, no return on investment could be expected till the 2030s, when the children born in the early 2000s enter the workforce. (Immigration is politically unpopular in this country.)[57] According to official figures, the number of individuals below 15 years of age in Japan was 13.6% of the population in 2007 and was predicted to fall to 12.3% in 2015, or about half that of the elderly. 2007 was the twenty-sixth consecutive year in which the number of people under the age of 15 dropped in Japan.[58] Japan's birth rate fell from roughly replacement level, 2.1, in the early 1970s to 1.26 in 2005.[59] Government officials estimated that population of Japan would decrease 30% by the 2050s, from 127 million to below 90 million.[58]

Singapore's birth rate has fallen below the replacement level of 2.1 since the 1980s before stabilizing during the 2000s and 2010s.[60] (It reached 1.14 in 2018, making it the lowest since 2010 and one of the lowest in the world.[61]) Government incentives such as the baby bonus have proven insufficient to raise the birth rate. Singapore's experience mirrors those of Japan and South Korea.[60]

From about 1750 to 1950, Western Europe transitioned from having both high birth and death rates to having low birth and death rates. By the late 1960s or 1970s, the average woman had fewer than two children, and, although demographers at first expected a "correction," such a rebound never came. Despite a bump in the total fertility rates (TFR) of some European countries in the very late twentieth century (the 1980s and 1990s), especially France and Scandinavia, they never returned to replacement level; the bump was largely due to older women realizing their dreams of motherhood. At first, falling fertility is due to urbanization and decreased infant mortality rates, which diminished the benefits and increased the costs of raising children. In other words, it became more economically sensible to invest more in fewer children, as economist Gary Becker argued. (This is the first demographic transition.) Falling fertility then came from attitudinal shifts. By the 1960s, people began moving from traditional and communal values towards more expressive and individualistic outlooks due to access to and aspiration of higher education, and to the spread of lifestyle values once practiced only by a tiny minority of cultural elites. (This is the second demographic transition.) Although the momentous cultural changes of the 1960s had leveled off by the 1990s, the social and cultural environment of the very late twentieth-century was quite different from that of the 1950s. Such changes in values have had a major effect on fertility that cemented itself in subsequent demographic cohorts. Member states of the European Community saw a steady increase in not just divorce and out-of-wedlock births between 1960 and 1985 but also falling fertility rates. In 1981, a survey of countries across the industrialized world found that while more than half of people aged 65 and over thought that women needed children to be fulfilled, only 35% of those between the ages of 15 to 24 (younger Baby Boomers and older Generation X) agreed.[62]

In the early 2000s, France and Scandinavia retained high fertility rates compared to other developed countries, especially Southern Europe and East Asia. At first sight, it appears that this might be due to their socially progressive values and policies, i.e. making it easier for women to pursue both their careers and reproductive dreams. However, closer scrutiny suggests the argument that "feminism is the new pro-natalism" is untenable, given that there are socially progressive countries with low fertility rates such as Austria and Canada on one hand, and more conservative and traditionalist countries with high fertility rates such as Ireland and the United States on the other.[62]

Population pyramid of the European Union in 2016

At the start of the twenty-first century, Europe has a population aging at an unprecedented rate. It is estimated that by 2050, 40% of Europeans will be over the age of 60. This problem is especially acute in the East whereas in the West, it is alleviated by international immigration. In addition, an increasing number of children born in Europe has been to non-European parents. Because children of immigrants in Europe tend to be about as religious as they are, this could slow the decline of religion (or the growth of secularism) in the continent as the twenty-first century progresses.[63] In the United Kingdom, the number of foreign-born residents stood at 6% of the population in 1991. Immigration subsequently surged and has not fallen since (as of 2018). Researches by the demographers and political scientists Eric Kaufmann, Roger Eatwell, and Matthew Goodwin suggest that such a fast ethno-demographic change is one of the key reasons behind public backlash in the form of nationalist populist revolts against the political establishment across the rich liberal democracies, an example of which being the Brexit Referendum in 2016.[64]

Italy is a country where the problem of an aging population is especially acute. The fertility rate dropped from about four in the 1960s down to 1.2 in the 2010s. This is not because young Italians do not want to procreate. Quite the contrary, having a lot of children is an Italian ideal. But its economy has been floundering since the Great Recession of 2007-8, with the youth unemployment rate at a staggering 35% in 2019. Many Italians have moved abroad – 150,000 did in 2018 – and many are young people pursuing educational and economic opportunities. With the plunge in the number of births each year, the Italian population is expected to decline in the next five years. Moreover, the Baby Boomers are retiring in large numbers, and their numbers eclipse those of the young people taking care of them. Only Japan has an age structure more tilted towards the elderly. One solution to this problem is incentivizing reproduction, as France has done, by investing in longer parental leaves, daycare, and tax exemptions for parents. As of 2019, France has approximately the same population as Italy but 65% more births. Another solution is immigration, which has been alleviating the decline, but it does not come without political backlash.[65]

Greece also suffers from a serious demographic problem as many young people are leaving the country in search of better opportunities elsewhere. This brain drain and a rapidly aging population could spell disaster for the country.[66]

Russia has a falling birth rate and a declining population despite having an improving economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to the United Nations, Russia's population could fall by as much as one third by 2050. Russian government statisticians estimated in 2005 that a boy born in their country that year has a slim chance of seeing his 60th birthday due to various lifestyle-related problems (such as alcoholism). A gap in life expectancy between the West and Russia started becoming noticeable in the 1960s.[67] Russia's population dropped 6% between the mid-1990s and early 2010s.[68]

Between 1990 and 2019, Iceland saw its population grew by 40.7%, Norway by 25.9%, Sweden by 20.0%, Denmark 13.1%, Greenland 0.8%, Finland 10.9%, the Faroe Islands 7.5%, and the Åland Islands 22.9%.[69]

Data from Statistics Canada published in 2017 showed that Generation Z comprised 17.6% of the Canadian population.[70] According to Statistics Canada, between 1980 and 2009, the frequency of the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) dropped from one per a thousand live births to 0.3, a 71% reduction. Data from the United Nations shows that the mortality rate of newborns between 28 and 364 days of age plummeted 64% and that of toddlers below the age of five fell 9.7% between 1980 and 2015. According to Statistics Canada, the number of households with both grandparents and grandchildren remained rare but has been growing. In 2011, five percent of Canadian children below the age of ten lived with a grandparent, up from 3.3% in the previous decade. This is in part because Canadian parents in early twenty-first century cannot (or think they cannot) afford childcare and often find themselves having to work long hours or irregular shifts. Meanwhile, many grandparents struggle to keep up with their highly active grandchildren on a regular basis due to their age. Between grandparents and parents, potential sources of friction include the diets of the children, their sleep schedule, how to discipline them, and how they may use electronic gadgets. Parents today are more reliant on the Internet for information than their own parents, and many even recommend that they take grandparenting classes. Because Millennials and members of Generation X tend to have fewer children than their parents the Baby Boomers, each child typically receives more attention his or her grandparents and parents compared to previous generations.[71]

A 2016 study showed that in the United States, Generation Z had surpassed the population of Millennials (69 million vs. 66 million).[72]

In the United States, at the urging of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (also known as the Hart-Celler Act), which abolished national quotas for immigrants and replaced it with a system that admits a fixed number of persons per year based in qualities such as skills and the need for refuge.[73] During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most immigrants to the United States had come from Europe, but by the late 1990s and early 2000s, Asia and Latin America became the top sources of immigrants to the nation.[74]

A report by demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution stated that in the United States, the Millennials are a bridge between the largely Caucasian pre-Millennials (Generation X and their predecessors) and the more diverse post-Millennials (Generation Z and their successors).[75] Indeed, in spite of the diminished flow of immigrants to the United States following the Great Recession, Generation Z is the most ethnically diverse yet seen. 52% of this generation is white. 25% is Hispanic. 14% is black, and 4% is Asian.[76] Approximately 4% is multiracial,[76] and this number has risen rapidly between 2000 and 2010.[1] More specifically, the number of Americans who identify as mixed white and black has grown by 134% and those of both white and Asian extraction by 87%.[1] For comparison, 44% of Millennials, 40% of Generation X, and 28% of the Baby Boomers identify as non-white.[77] Frey's research also suggests that at the national level, Hispanics and Asians are the fastest growing racial minority groups in the United States while the number of Caucasians under the age of 18 has been declining since 2000.[78] This demographic change could have social, cultural, and political implications for the decades ahead.[78]

Members of Generation Z are slightly less likely to be foreign born than Millennials;[76] the fact that more American Latinos were born in the U.S. rather than abroad plays a role in making the first wave of Generation Z appear better educated than their predecessors. However, researchers warn that this trend could be altered by changing immigration patterns and the younger members of Generation Z choosing alternate educational paths.[79] As a demographic cohort, Generation Z is smaller than the Baby Boomers and their children, the Millennials.[80] According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Generation Z makes up about one quarter of the U.S. population, as of 2015.[81] Provisional data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that U.S. fertility rates have fallen below the replacement level of 2.1 since 1971. (It was 1.765 in 2017.)[82]

Population pyramid of Australia in 2016

Australia's total fertility rate has fallen from above three in the post-war era, to about replacement level (2.1) in the 1970s to below that in the late 2010s. (It was 1.74 in 2017.) However, immigration has been offsetting the effects of a declining birthrate. In the 2010s, among the residents of Australia, 5% were born in the United Kingdom, 2.5% from China, 2.2% from India, and 1.1% from the Philippines. 84% of new arrivals in the fiscal year of 2016 were below 40 years of age, compared to 54% of those already in the country. Like other immigrant-friendly countries, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Australia's working-age population is expected to grow till about 2025. However, the ratio of people of working age to retirees (the dependency ratio) has gone from eight in the 1970s to about four in the 2010s. It could drop to two by the 2060s, depending in immigration levels.[83] "The older the population is, the more people are on welfare benefits, we need more health care, and there's a smaller base to pay the taxes," Ian Harper of the Melbourne Business School told ABC News (Australia).[84] While the government has scaled back plans to increase the retirement age, to cut pensions, and to raise taxes due to public opposition, demographic pressures continue to mount as the buffering effects of immigration are fading away.[83] Australians coming of age in the early twenty-first century are more reluctant to have children compared to their predecessors due to economic reasons: higher student debt, expensive housing, and negative income growth.[84]

In 2019, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) surveyed educational standards and achievement of its 36 member states and found that while education spending has gone up by an average of 15% over the previous decade, academic performance of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics, and science on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) has largely stagnated. Students from China and Singapore, both outside of the OECD, continued to outclass their global peers. Among all the countries that sent their students to take the PISA, only Albania, Colombia, Macao, Moldova, Peru, Portugal, and Qatar saw any improvements since joining. Of these, only Portugal is an OECD country. Meanwhile, Australia, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovakia, and South Korea all saw a decline in overall performance since joining. Funding, while important, is not necessarily the most important thing, as the case of Estonia demonstrates. Estonia spent 30% below the OECD average yet still achieved top marks.[85]

Socioeconomic background is a key factor in academic success in the OECD, with students coming from families in the top 10% of the income distribution being three years ahead in reading skills compared to those from the bottom 10%. However, the link between background and performance was weakest in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Japan, Norway, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, meaning these countries have the most equitable education systems.[85]

For information on public support for higher education (for domestic students) in various countries in 2019, see chart below.

In Sweden, universities are tuition-free, as is the case in Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland. However, Swedish students typically graduate with a lot of debt due to the high cost of living in their country, especially in the large cities such as Stockholm. The ratio of debt to expected income after graduation for Swedes was about 80% in 2013. In the U.S., despite widespread concern over rising student debt, that number stood at 60%. Moreover, about seven out of eight Swedes graduate with debt, compared to one half in the U.S. In the 2008-9 academic year, virtually all Swedish students take advantage of state-sponsored financial aid packages from a government agency known as the Centrala Studiestödsnämnden (CSN), which include low-interest loans with long repayment schedules (25 years or until the student turns 60). In Sweden, student aid is based on their own earnings whereas in some other countries, such as Germany or the United States, such aid is premised on parental income as parents are expected to help foot the bill for their children's education. In the 2008-9 academic year, Australia, Austria, Japan, the Netherlands, and New Zealand saw an increase in both the average tuition fees of their public universities for full-time domestic students and the percentage of students taking advantage of state-sponsored student aid compared to 1995. In the United States, there was an increase in the former but not the latter.[86]

In 2005, judges in Karlsruhe, Germany, struck down a ban on university fees as unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated the constitutional right of German states to regulate their own higher education systems. This ban was introduced in order to ensure equality of access to higher education regardless of socioeconomic class. Bavarian Science Minister Thomas Goppel told the Associated Press, "Fees will help to preserve the quality of universities." Supporters of fees argued that they would help ease the financial burden on universities and would incentivize students to study more efficiently, despite not covering the full cost of higher education, an average of €8,500 as of 2005. Opponents believed fees would make it more difficult for people to study and graduate on time.[87] Germany also suffered from a brain drain, as many bright researchers moved abroad while relatively few international students were interested in coming to Germany. This has led to the decline of German research institutions.[88]

A sample JAPD certificate.

In France, while year-long mandatory military service for men was abolished in 1996 by President Jacques Chirac, who wanted to build a professional all-volunteer military,[89] all citizens between 17 and 25 years of age must still participate in the Defense and Citizenship Day (JAPD), when they are introduced to the French Armed Forces, and take language tests.[89] In 2019, President Emmanuel Macron introduced something similar to mandatory military service, but for teenagers, as promised during his presidential campaign. Known as the Service National Universel or SNU (fr:Service national universel), it is a compulsory civic service. While students will not have to shave their heads or handle military equipment, they will have to sleep in tents, get up early (at 6:30 am), participate in various physical activities, raise the tricolor, and sing the national anthem. They will have to wear a uniform, though it is more akin to the outfit of security guards rather than military personnel. This program takes a total of four weeks. In the first two, youths learn how to provide first aid, how navigating with a map, how to recognize fake news, emergency responses for various scenarios, and self-defense. In addition, they get health checks and get tested on their mastery of the French language, and they participate in debates on a variety of social issues, including environmentalism, state secularism, and gender equality. In the second fortnight, they volunteer with a charity for local government. The aim of this program is to promote national cohesion and patriotism, at a time of deep division on religious and political grounds, to get people out of their neighborhoods and regions, and mix people of different socioeconomic classes, something mandatory military service used to do. Supporters thought that teenagers rarely raise the national flag, spend too much time on their phones, and felt nostalgic for the era of compulsory military service, considered a rite of passage for young men and a tool of character-building. Critics argued that this program is inadequate, and would cost too much.[90] The SNU is projected to affect some 800,000 French citizens each year when it becomes mandatory for all aged 16 to 21 by 2026, at a cost of some €1.6 billion.[90] Another major concern is that it will overburden the French military, already stretched thin by counter-terrorism campaigns at home and abroad.[89] A 2015 IFOP poll revealed that 80% of the French people supported some kind of mandatory service, military, or civilian. At the same time, returning to conscription was also popular; supporters included 90% of the UMP party, 89% of the National Front (now the National Rally), 71% of the Socialist Party, and 67% of people aged 18 to 24. This poll was conducted after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks.[91]

In 2017, almost half of Britons have received higher education by the age of 30. This is despite the fact that £9,000 worth of student fees were introduced in 2012. U.K. universities first introduced fees in autumn 1998 to address financial troubles and the fact that universities elsewhere charged tuition. Prime Minister Tony Blair introduced the goal of having half of young Britons earning a university degree in 1999, though he missed the 2010 deadline. Demand for higher education in the United Kingdom remains strong, driven by the need for high-skilled workers from both the public and private sectors. There was, however, a widening gender gap. As of 2017, women were more likely to attend or have attended university than men, 55% to 43%, a 12% gap.[92]

In 2013, less than a third of American public schools have access to broadband Internet service, according to the non-profit EducationSuperHighway. By 2019, however, that number reached 99%, which has increased the frequency of digital learning.[93]

Students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2019).

According to a Northeastern University Survey, 81% of Generation Z in the U.S. believes obtaining a college degree is necessary in achieving career goals.[94] As Generation Z enters high school, and they start preparing for college, a primary concern is paying for a college education without acquiring debt. Students report working hard in high school in hopes of earning scholarships and the hope that parents will pay the college costs not covered by scholarships. Students also report interest in ROTC programs as a means of covering college costs.[95] According to NeaToday, a publication by the National Education Association, two thirds of Gen Zers entering college are concerned about affording college. One third plan to rely on grants and scholarships and one quarter hope that their parents will cover the bulk of college costs. While the cost of attending college is incredibly high for most Gen Zers, according to NeaToday, 65% say the benefits of graduating college exceed the costs.[95] As of 2019, the total college debt has exceeded $1.5 trillion, and two out of three college graduates are saddled with debt. The average borrower owes $37,000, up $10,000 from ten years before. A 2019 survey by TD Ameritrade found that over 30% of Generation Z (and 18% of Millennials) said they have considered taking a gap year between high school and college.[96]

Generation Z is revolutionizing the educational system in many aspects. Thanks in part to a rise in the popularity of entrepreneurship and advancements in technology, high schools and colleges across the globe are including entrepreneurship in their curriculum.[97] According to the World Economic Forum, over one in five members of Generation Z are interested in attending a trade or technical school instead of a college or university.[98] In the United States today, high school students are generally encouraged to attend college or university after graduation while the options of technical school and vocational training are often neglected.[99] According to the 2018 CNBC All-American Economic Survey, only 40% of Americans believed that the financial cost of a four-year university degree is justified, down from 44% five years before. Moreover, only 50% believed a four-year program is the best kind of training, down from 60%, and the number of people who saw value in a two-year program jumped from 18% to 26%. These findings are consistent with other reports.[100]

STEM subjects are more popular among Generation-Z students than the humanities. Pictured: Fine Hall, Princeton University.

Members of Generation Z are anxious to pick majors that teach them marketable skills.[21] According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), some 88% consider job preparation to be the point of college. 39% are aiming for a career in medicine or healthcare, 20% in the natural sciences, 18% in biology or biotechnology, and 17% in business.[101] A 2018 Gallup poll on over 32,000 university students randomly selected from 43 schools from across the United States found that just over half (53%) of them thought their chosen major would lead to gainful employment. STEM students expressed the highest confidence (62%) while those in the liberal arts were the least confident (40%). Just over one in three thought they would learn the skills and knowledge needed to become successful in the workplace.[102] Because jobs (that matched what one studied) were so difficult to find in the few years following the Great Recession, the value of getting a liberal arts degree and studying the humanities at university came into question, their ability to develop a well-rounded and broad-minded individual notwithstanding.[103] Moreover, institutions of higher education came under heightened skepticism in the 2010s due to high costs and disappointing results. People became increasingly concerned about debts and deficits. No longer were promises of educating "citizens of the world" or estimates of economic impact coming from abstruse calculations sufficient. Colleges and universities found it necessary to prove their worth by clarifying how much money from which industry and company funded research, and how much it would cost to attend.[104] While the number of students majoring in the humanities have fallen significantly, those in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, have risen sharply.[21]

Data from the Institute of International Education showed that compared to the 2013-14 academic year, the number of foreign students enrolling in American colleges and universities peaked in 2015-6, with about 300,000 students, before falling slightly in subsequent years. Compared to the 2017-18 academic year, 2018-19 saw a drop of 1% in the number of foreign students. This is a concern for institutions that have become reliant on international enrollment for revenue, as they typically charge foreign students more than their domestic counterparts. As of 2019, these were the first downturn in a decade. However, the number of foreign graduates staying for work or further training has increased. In 2019, there were 220,000 who were authorized to stay for temporary work, a 10% rise compared to fall 2017. Top sources of students studying abroad in the United States were China, South Korea, India, and Saudi Arabia (in that order). While the number of Chinese students on American soil has fallen noticeably—due to a variety of factors, such as reported difficulty of obtaining a U.S. visa amid the ongoing Sino-American trade war, more competition from Canada and Australia, and growing anti-Chinese sentiments due to concerns over intellectual property theft—students coming from elsewhere in Asia (though not South Korea and Japan), Latin America, and Africa have gone up. In particular, the number of Nigerian students climbed 6% while those from Brazil and Bangladesh rose 10%. The most popular majors have shifted, with business, an academic subject extremely popular among Chinese students, falling by 7% in the 2018-19 academic year. Meanwhile, mathematics and computer science jumped 9%, replacing business as the second most popular majors after engineering.[105]

In 2019, there were over 4,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. However, Harvard business professor Clayton Christensen, known for creating the theory of "disruptive innovation" and applying it to a variety of industries, including education, predicted that half of all American colleges will go bankrupt within the next ten to fifteen years because of innovations in online learning.[106] On the other hand, economist Michael Horn, also at Harvard, predicted in 2019 that 25% will close within the next 20 years.[107] Rising administrative costs, sluggish middle-class wages, demographic decline (especially in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States), new forms of learning, stronger competition from better endowed universities, and higher demands for technical training undermine the financial viability of many schools.[107][108] "It's going to be brutal across American higher education," Horn told CBS News.[107] A 2019 analysis by Moody's Investor Services estimated that about 20% of all small private liberal arts colleges in the United States were in serious financial trouble.[108] Historically, this is not unprecedented; the 1970s and the 1980s saw drops in college enrollment, too. But increased enrollment by women halted the decline. Today, higher enrollment by first-generation students and Hispanics could do the same.[109]

Historically, university students were more likely to be male than female. The difference was especially great during the second half of the twentieth century, when enrollment rose dramatically compared to the 1940s. This trend continues into the very early twenty-first century. By the late 2010s, however, the situation has reversed. Women are now more likely to enroll in university than men.[110] As a matter of fact, by the late 2010s, more than half of university students were women.[109] In 2018, upwards of one third of each sex is a university student.[110]

In 2018, as the number of robots at work continued to increase, the global unemployment rate fell to 5.2%, the lowest in 38 years. Current trends suggest that developments in artificial intelligence and robotics will not result in mass unemployment but can actually create high-skilled jobs. However, in order to take advantage of this situation, one needs a culture and an education system that promote lifelong learning. Honing skills that machines have not yet mastered, such as teamwork and effective communication, will be crucial.[111][112]

Parents of Generation Z might have the image of their child's first business being a lemonade stand or car wash. While these are great first businesses, Generation Z now has access to social media platforms, website builders, 3D printers, and drop shipping platforms which provides them with additional opportunities to start a business at a young age. The internet has provided a store front for Generation Z to sell their ideas to people around the world without ever leaving their house.[113]

As technological progress continues, something that is made evident by the emergence of or breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, robotics, three-dimensional printing, nanotechnology, quantum computing, autonomous vehicles, among other fields, culminating in what economist Klaus Schwab calls the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution', the demand for innovative, well-educated, and highly skilled workers continues to rise, as do their incomes. Demand for low-pay and low-skilled workers, on the other hand, will continue to fall.[114]

By analyzing data from the United Nations and the Global Talent Competitive Index, KDM Engineering found that as of 2019, the top five countries for international high-skilled workers are Switzerland, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Sweden. Factors taken into account included the ability to attract high-skilled foreign workers, business-friendliness, regulatory environment, the quality of education, and the standard of living. Switzerland is best at retaining talents due to its excellent quality of life. Singapore is home to a world-class environment for entrepreneurs. And the United States offers the most opportunity for growth due to the sheer size of its economy and the quality of higher education and training.[115] As of 2019, these are also some of the world's most competitive economies, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). In order to determine a country or territory's economic competitiveness, the WEF considers factors such as the trustworthiness of public institutions, the quality of infrastructure, macro-economic stability, the quality of healthcare, business dynamism, labor market efficiency, and innovation capacity.[116]

Statistics from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reveal that between 2014 and 2019, Japan's unemployment rate went from about 4% to 2.4% and China's from almost 4.5% to 3.8%. These are some of the lowest rates among the top economies.[117]

When he came to power in 1949, Mao Zedong vowed to abolish capitalism and social classes. 'Old money' ceased to exist in China as a result of a centrally planned economy. But that changed in the 1980s when Deng Xiaoping introduced economic reforms; the middle and upper classes have blossoming ever since. In fact, he considered getting rich to be "glorious." Chinese cities have morphed into major shopping centers. The number of billionaires (in U.S. dollars) in China is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, so much so that butler academies, whose students will serve the 'new rich', and finishing schools, whose students were born to rich parents, have been established. However, according to the World Bank, 27% of Chinese still live below the poverty line. The Chinese Central Government promised to end poverty by 2020. President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign also cracks down on what he considered 'ostentatious displays of wealth'. Moreover, members of China's upper class must align themselves closely with the Communist Party. A number of young Chinese entrepreneurs have taken advantage of the Internet to become social media influencers to sell their products.[118]

Technology companies and startups are booming in China and Southeast Asia. Whereas in the past, Chinese firms copied the business strategies and models from their U.S. counterparts, now, they are developing their own approaches, and Southeast Asian companies are learning from their success and experience, a practice known as "Copy from China." E-commerce has been flourishing. In Singapore, for example, not only is it now possible to place orders online, one may also purchase groceries in person, pay by mobile phone, and have them packed by machines; there are no cashiers. Whereas Westerners were first introduced to the Internet via their personal computers, people in China and Southeast Asia first got online with their mobile phones. Consequently, the e-commerce industry's heavy usage of mobile phone applications has paid off handsomely. In particular, Chinese entrepreneurs invest in what are known as "super-apps," those that enable users to access all kinds of services within them, not just messaging, but also bike rentals and digital wallets. In Indonesia, relying on credit-card payments is difficult because the market penetration of this technology remains rather low (as of 2019). Nevertheless, e-commerce and ride-hailing are growing there, too. But it is Singapore that is the startup hub of the region, thanks to its excellent infrastructure, government support, and abundant capital. Furthermore, Singaporean technology firms are "uniquely positioned" to learn from both the U.S. and China.[119]

China's Generation Z has been taking advantage of the variety of lending options available to them, albeit at the cost of exceedingly high and possibly illegal interest rates. Although authorities have been cracking down on questionable money lenders, there is still a plethora of ways to borrow money. According to Bloomberg, China's household debt-to-GDP ratio jumped from 27% in 2010 to 57% in 2019. For comparison, household debt was 126% of GDP in Australia, 99% in South Korea, and 75% in the United States, according to Bank of America. However, Fitch Ratings estimated that the rate of growth was twice that of nominal GDP. According to the People's Bank of China, the nation's debt-to-disposable income ratio was 99.9% in 2019, up from 93.4% the previous year.[120]

In Europe, although the unemployment rates of France and Italy remained relatively high, they were markedly lower than previously. Meanwhile, the German unemployment rate dipped below even that of the United States, a level not seen since its unification almost three decades prior.[117] Eurostat reported in 2019 that overall unemployment rate across the European Union dropped to its lowest level since January 2000, at 6.2% in August, meaning about 15.4 million people were out of a job. The Czech Republic (3%), Germany (3.1%) and Malta (3.3%) enjoyed the lowest levels of unemployment. Member states with the highest unemployment rates were Italy (9.5%), Spain (13.8%), and Greece (17%). Countries with higher unemployment rates compared to 2018 were Denmark (from 4.9% to 5%), Lithuania (6.1% to 6.6%), and Sweden (6.3% to 7.1%).[121]

In November 2019, the European Commission expressed concern over the fact that some member states have "failed to put their finances in order." Belgium, France, and Spain had a debt-to-GDP ratio of almost 100% each while Italy's was 136%. Under E.U. rules, member nations must take steps to decrease public debt if it exceeds 60% of GDP. The Commission commended Greece for making progress in economic recovery.[122]

Top five professions with insufficient workers in the European Union (late 2010s).

According to the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), the European Union in the late 2010s suffers from shortages of STEM specialists (including ICT professionals), medical doctors, nurses, midwives and schoolteachers. However, the picture varies depending on the country. In Italy, environmentally friendly architecture is in high demand. Estonia and France are running short of legal professionals. Ireland, Luxembourg, Hungary, and the United Kingdom need more financial experts. All member states except Finland need more ICT specialists, and all but Belgium, Greece, Spain, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal and the United Kingdom need more teachers. The supply of STEM graduates has been insufficient because the dropout rate is high and because of an ongoing brain drain from some countries. Some countries need more teachers because many are retiring and need to be replaced. At the same time, Europe's aging population necessitates the expansion of the healthcare sector. Disincentives for (potential) workers in jobs in high demand include low social prestige, low salaries, and stressful work environments. Indeed, many have left the public sector for industry while some STEM graduates have taken non-STEM jobs.[123]

Even though pundits predicted that the uncertainty due to the Brexit referendum would cause the British economy to falter or even fall into a recession, the unemployment rate has dipped below 4% while real wages have risen slightly in the late 2010s, two percent as of 2019. In particular, medical doctors and dentists saw their earnings bumped above the inflation rate in July 2019. Despite the fact that the government promised to an increase in public spending (£13 billion, or 0.6% of GDP) in September 2019, public deficit continues to decline, as it has since 2010. Nevertheless, uncertainty surrounding Britain's international trade policy suppressed the chances of an export boom despite the depreciation of the pound sterling.[124] According to the employment website Glassdoor, the highest paying entry level jobs in the United Kingdom in 2019 are investment banking analyst, software engineer, business analyst, data scientist, financial analyst, software developer, civil engineer, audit assistant, design engineer, mechanical engineer. Their median base salaries range from about £28,000 to £51,000 a year. In general, people with STEM degrees have the best chances of being recruited into a high-paying job. According to the Office for National Statistics, the median income of the United Kingdom in 2018 was £29,588.[125]

In the United Kingdom, the number of teenagers who owned businesses jumped from 491 in 2009 to 4,152 in 2019. These people make heavy use of social media platforms to establish their careers.[126]

Railroad engineering was one of the top professions in Canada in 2017. Pictured: An Ottawa-bound train passing through Brighton, Ontario.

Between 2014 and 2019, Canada's overall unemployment rate fell from about 7% to below 6%, according to the IMF.[117] In 2017, the magazine Canadian Business analyzed publicly available data from Statistics Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada to determine the top occupations on the basis of growth and salaries. They included construction managers, mining and quarry managers, pilots and flying instructors, software engineers, police officers, firefighters, urban planners, petroleum, chemical, agricultural, biomedical, aerospace, and railroad engineers, business services managers, deck officers, corporate sales managers, pharmacists, elevator mechanics, lawyers, economic development directors, real-estate and financial managers, telecommunications managers, utilities managers, pipe-fitting managers, forestry managers, nurse practitioners, and public administration managers.[127] However, in the late 2010s, Canada's oil and gas industry has been in decline due to a lack of political support and unfavorable policies from Ottawa. The number of oil rigs in Western Canada, where most of the country's deposits are located, dropped from 900 in 2014 to 550 in 2019. Many Canadian companies have moved their crew and equipment to the United States, especially to Texas.[128]

Americans aged 15 to 21 expect to be financially independent in their early twenties while their parents generally expect them to become so by their mid-twenties.[129] While the Millennials tend to prefer flexibility, Generation Z is more interested in certainty and stability.[130] Whereas 23% of Millennials would leave a job if they thought they were not appreciated, only 15% of Generation Z would do the same, according to a Deloitte survey.[131] According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), 77% of Generation Z expects to work harder than previous generations.[77] As a result, barely one in two recruits from Generation Z are willing to negotiate a higher salary, even though, as of 2019, the U.S. labor market is very tight, meaning the balance of power is currently in favor of job seekers, collectively.[132] Indeed, Employers are open to negotiations for higher salaries and better benefits in order to attract talents.[132] While there is agreement across generations that it is very important for employees to learn new skills, Millennials and Generation Z are overwhelmingly more likely than Baby Boomers to think that it is the job of employees to train themselves. Baby Boomers tend to think it is the employer's responsibility. Moreover, Millennials and Generation Z (74%) tend to have more colleagues working remotely for a significant portion of their time compared to the Baby Boomers (58%).[133] An overwhelming majority, 80%, prefers to work for a medium-sized or large company.[77] A Morgan Stanley report, called the Blue Paper, projected that the Millennials and Generation Z have been responsible in a surge in labor participation in the U.S., and that while the U.S. labor force expands, that of other G10 countries will contract. This development alleviates concerns over America's aging population which jeopardizes the solvency of various welfare programs.[134] As of 2019, Millennials and Generation Z account for 38% of the U.S. workforce; that number will rise to 58% in the incoming decade.[133]

According to the United States Department of Labor, the unemployment rate in September 2019 was 3.5%, a number not seen since December 1969.[135] At the same time, labor participation remained steady and most job growth tended to be full-time positions.[135] The number of people who ended up with part-time positions despite looking for full-time jobs dropped to 4.32 million, below the average of the previous three decades.[136] Economists generally consider a population with an unemployment rate lower than 4% to be fully employed. In fact, even people with disabilities or prison records are getting hired.[137] On average, they grew by 2.7% in 2016, 3.3% in 2018,[138] and 3.3% in 2019.[136] However, the Pew Research Center found that the average wage in the U.S. in 2018 remained more or less the same as it was in 1978, when the seasons and inflation are taken into consideration. Real wages grew only for the top 90th percentile of earners and to a lesser extent the 75th percentile (in 2018 dollars).[139] Nevertheless, these developments ease fears of an upcoming recession.[140] Moreover, economists believe that job growth could slow to an average of just 100,000 per month and still be sufficient to keep up with population growth and keep economic recovery going.[138] As long as firms keep hiring and wages keep growing, consumer spending should prevent another recession.[141] Appearing before Congress in November 2019, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell said that while the U.S. economy had taken a long time to recover from the Great Recession, it now enjoyed a strong labor market, low inflation, and moderate growth, and that his agency expected continued economic growth.[142] At the same time, U.S. household debt fell from 90% of GDP in 2010 to 75% in 2019, according to Bank of America.[120]

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the occupations with the highest median annual pay in the United States in 2018 included medical doctors (especially psychiatrists, anesthesiologists, obstetricians and gynecologists, surgeons, and orthodontists), chief executives, dentists, information system managers, chief architects and engineers, pilots and flight engineers, petroleum engineers, and marketing managers. Their median annual pay ranged from about $134,000 (marketing managers) to over $208,000 (aforementioned medical specialties).[143] Meanwhile, the occupations with the fastest projected growth rate between 2018 and 2028 are solar cell and wind turbine technicians, healthcare and medical aides, cyber security experts, statisticians, speech-language pathologists, genetic counselors, mathematicians, operations research analysts, software engineers, forest fire inspectors and prevention specialists, post-secondary health instructors, and phlebotomists. Their projected growth rates are between 23% (medical assistants) and 63% (solar cell installers); their annual median pays range between roughly $24,000 (personal care aides) to over $108,000 (physician assistants).[144] Occupations with the highest projected numbers of jobs added between 2018 and 2028 are healthcare and personal aides, nurses, restaurant workers (including cooks and waiters), software developers, janitors and cleaners, medical assistants, construction workers, freight laborers, marketing researchers and analysts, management analysts, landscapers and groundskeepers, financial managers, tractor and truck drivers, and medical secretaries. The total numbers of jobs added ranges from 881,000 (personal care aides) to 96,400 (medical secretaries). Annual median pays range from over $24,000 (fast-food workers) to about $128,000 (financial managers).[145]

According to the Department of Education, people with technical or vocational trainings are slightly more likely to be employed than those with a bachelor's degree and significantly more likely to be employed in their fields of specialty.[99] The United States currently suffers from a shortage of skilled tradespeople.[99] If nothing is done, this problem will get worse as older workers retire and the market tightens due to falling unemployment rates. Economists argue that raising wages could incentivize more young people to pursue these careers. Many manufacturers are partnering with community colleges to create apprenticeship and training programs. However, they still have an image problem as people perceive manufacturing jobs as unstable, given the mass layoffs during the Great Recession of 2007-8.[146] After the Great Recession, the number of U.S. manufacturing jobs reached a minimum of 11.5 million in February 2010. It rose to 12.8 million in September 2019. It was 14 million in March 2007.[147] As of 2019, manufacturing industries made up 12% of the U.S. economy, which is increasingly reliant on service industries, as is the case for other advanced economies around the world.[148] Nevertheless, twenty-first-century manufacturing is increasingly sophisticated, using advanced robotics, 3D printing, cloud computing, among other modern technologies, and technologically savvy employees are precisely who employers need. Four-year university degrees are unnecessary; technical or vocational training, or perhaps apprenticeships would do.[149]

Unlike some major economies, unemployment actually increased in Brazil, from about 6.7% in 2014 to about 11.4% in 2018. Although its economy remains growing, it is still recovering from a recession in 2015 and 2016. Wages have remained stagnant and the labor market has been weak.[117] Unemployment rose to 12.7% in March 2019, or about 13.4 million people. Underemployment also increased in the first quarter of 2019.[150]

Generation Z is the first cohort to have Internet technology readily available at a young age.[188] With the web revolution that occurred throughout the 1990s, they have been exposed to an unprecedented amount of technology in their upbringing, with the use of mobile devices growing exponentially over time. Anthony Turner characterizes Generation Z as having a 'digital bond to the Internet', and argues that it may help youth to escape from emotional and mental struggles they face offline.[40]

According to U.S. consultants Sparks and Honey in 2014, 41% of Generation Z spend more than three hours per day using computers for purposes other than schoolwork, compared with 22% in 2004.[189] In 2015, an estimated 150,000 apps, 10% of those in Apple's App Store, were educational and aimed at children up to college level,[190] though opinions are mixed as to whether the net result will be deeper involvement in learning[190] and more individualized instruction, or impairment through greater technology dependence[191] and a lack of self-regulation that may hinder child development.[191] Parents of Gen Zers fear the overuse of the Internet, and dislike the ease of access to inappropriate information and images, as well as social networking sites where children can gain access to people worldwide. Children reversely feel annoyed with their parents and complain about parents being overly controlling when it comes to their Internet usage.[192]

In a TEDxHouston talk, Jason Dorsey of the Center for Generational Kinetics stressed the notable differences in the way that Millennials and Generation Z consume technology, with 18% of Generation Z feeling that it is okay for a 13-year-old to have a smartphone, compared with just 4% for the previous generation.[193][194][195] An online newspaper about texting, SMS and MMS writes that teens own cellphones without necessarily needing them; that receiving a phone is considered a rite of passage in some countries, allowing the owner to be further connected with their peers, and it is now a social norm to have one at an early age.[196] An article from the Pew Research Center stated that "nearly three-quarters of teens have or have access to a smartphone and 30% have a basic phone, while just 12% of teens 13 to 15 say they have no cell phone of any type".[197] These numbers are only on the rise and the fact that the majority own a cell phone has become one of this generations defining characteristics. Consequently, "24% of teens go online 'almost constantly'."[197]

A survey of students from 79 countries by the OECD found that that the amounts of time spent using an electronic device has increased, from under two hours per weekday in 2012 to close to three in 2019, at the expense of extracurricular reading.[85]

Despite being labeled as 'digital natives', the 2018 International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS), conducted on 42,000 eighth-graders (or equivalents) from 14 countries and education systems, found that only two percent of these people were sufficiently proficient with information devices to justify that description, and only 19% could work independently with computers to gather information and to manage their work.[198] ICILS assesses students on two main categories: Computer and Information Literacy (CIL), and Computational Thinking (CT). For CIL, there are four levels, one to four, with Level 4 being the highest. Although at least 80% students from most countries tested reached Level 1, only two percent on average reached Level 4. Countries or education systems whose students scored near or above the international average of 496 in CIL were, in increasing order, France, North Rhine-Westphalia, Portugal, Germany, the United States, Finland, South Korea, Moscow, and Denmark. CT is divided into four levels, the Upper, Middle, and Lower Regions. International averages for the proportions of students reaching each of these were 18%, 50%, and 32%, respectively. Countries or education systems whose students scored near or above the international average of 500 were, in increasing order, the United States, France, Finland, Denmark, and South Korea. In general, female eighth-graders outperformed their male counterparts in CIL by an international average of 18 points but were narrowly outclassed by their male counterparts in CT. (Narrow gaps made estimates of averages have higher coefficients of variation.)[199] In the United States, where the computer-based tests were administered by the National Center for Education Statistics,[198] 72% of eighth-graders said they searched for information on the Internet at least once a week or every school day, and 65% reported they were autodidactic information finders on the Internet.[199]

The use of social media has become integrated into the daily lives of most Gen Zers with access to mobile technology, who use it primarily to keep in contact with friends and family. As a result, mobile technology has caused online relationship development to become a new generational norm.[200] Gen Z uses social media and other sites to strengthen bonds with friends and to develop new ones. They interact with people who they otherwise would not have met in the real world, becoming a tool for identity creation.[192] The negative side to mobile devices for Generation Z, according to Twenge, is they are less "face to face", and thus feel more lonely and left out.[201]

Focus group testing found that while teens may be annoyed by many aspects of Facebook, they continue to use it because participation is important in terms of socializing with friends and peers. Twitter and Instagram are seen to be gaining popularity among members of Generation Z, with 24% (and growing) of teens with access to the Internet having Twitter accounts.[202] This is, in part, due to parents not typically using these social networking sites.[202] Snapchat is also seen to have gained attraction in Generation Z because videos, pictures, and messages send much faster on it than in regular messaging. Speed and reliability are important factors in members of Generation Z choice of social networking platform. This need for quick communication is presented in popular Generation Z apps like Vine and the prevalent use of emojis.[1]

A study by Gabrielle Borca, et al found that teenagers in 2012 were more likely to share different types of information than teenagers in 2006.[202] However, they will take steps to protect information that they do not want being shared, and are more likely to "follow" others on social media than "share".[44] A survey of U.S. teenagers from advertising agency J. Walter Thomson likewise found that the majority of teenagers are concerned about how their posting will be perceived by people or their friends. 72% of respondents said they were using social media on a daily basis, and 82% said they thought carefully about what they post on social media. Moreover, 43% said they had regrets about previous posts.[203]

Research conducted in 2017 reports that the social media usage patterns of this generation may be associated with loneliness, anxiety, and fragility, and that girls may be more affected than boys by social media. According to 2018 CDC reports, girls are disproportionately affected by the negative aspects of social media than boys.[204] Researchers at the University of Essex analyzed data from 10,000 families, from 2010-2015, assessing their mental health utilizing two perspectives: Happiness and Well-being throughout social, familial, and educational perspectives.[205] Within each family, they examined children who had grown from 10–15 during these years. At age 10, 10% of female subjects reported social media use, while this was only true for 7% of the male subjects. By age 15, this variation jumped to 53% for girls, and 41% for boys. This percentage influx may explain why more girls reported experiencing cyberbullying, decreased self-esteem, and emotional instability more than their male counterparts.

Other researchers hypothesize that girls are more affected by social media usage because of how they use it. In a study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2015, researchers discovered that while 78% girls reported to making a friend through social media, only 52% of boys could say the same.[206] However, boys are not explicitly less affected by this statistic. They also found that 57% of boys claimed to make friends through video gaming, while this was only true for 13% of girls.[206] Another Pew Research Center survey conducted in April 2015, reported that women are more likely to use Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram than men. In counterpoint, men were more likely to utilize online forums, e-chat groups, and Reddit than women.[206]

Cyberbullying is more common now than among Millennials, the previous generation. It's more common among girls, 22% compared to 10% for boys. This results in young girls feeling more vulnerable to being excluded and undermined.[207][208]

According to the Pew Research Center, although only a negligible number of people dated online in 2005, that rose to 11% in 2013 and then 15% in 2015. This increase was driven mainly by people aged 18 to 24, whose usage almost tripled, and those aged 55 to 64, whose doubled. Attitudes towards online dating has improved, though only 5% of online daters said they were married to or in a committed relationship with someone they met online.[209]