Coronavirus: Millennials may struggle but Gen Z will reap the benefits

The COVID-19 downturn will end up being a blessing in disguise for younger Australians.

Older generations desire to protect what they’ve built in past decades, but younger people have less to lose.

In some ways, the coronavirus doesn’t discriminate; anyone can be infected.

But young generations not only are less likely to die from the virus, they also are better positioned to ride out or even benefit from the realignment of the economy in a post-coronavirus Australia. While older generations desire to protect what they’ve built in past decades, younger people have less to lose; they can sit out a significant drop in their portfolios and are better positioned to pivot their careers.

Millennials (ages 21 to 38) are the children of the baby boomer generation. Their parents, aided by three decades of economic growth, provided well for them ­financially and gave them with a can-do attitude — some may argue a sense of entitlement. ­ Millennials, men and women, have been taught they can become whatever and whoever they want.

As a result, millennials suffer from the tyranny of choice. Since I can be whoever I want and achieve whatever I want, I had better pick the right uni degree, the right job, the right spouse and portray the right image of myself online.

Millennials are also known as Gen Y, not only because they follow Gen X but because they always ask “Why?” They want to do the right thing and are obsessed with purpose and meaning.

For them, the meaning of life doesn’t come from God (they are the least religious generation) or from family (they’ve pushed out family formation into their mid-30s). The obvious places left to extract meaning from are work and consumption.

Few jobs, even well-paid ones, combine a decent income with serving a greater good. Millennials want their consumption patterns to reflect their values of equality, fairness and sustainability, and to earn as much as their boomer ­parents. This is why vegan food, renewable energy and fair-trade products are so popular, and job satisfaction tends to be low.

Millennials are experiencing their first economic downturn. The worst financial event in their lifetime was the global financial crisis, which was still a period of moderate economic growth in Australia. How does a generation that was spared financial hardship react once times become more ­serious, once they lose their jobs?

We are about to find out.

During the next 10 years, all ­millennials will have entered the family formation stage of the life cycle. Taking responsibility for the life of somebody other than yourself makes you grow up. We will see a whole generation “adulting” very quickly. With businesses going bust and high unemployment figures, a vacuum emerges that needs to be filled during the coming rebuilding of the Australian economy. Millennials are at the right age and point in the life cycle to benefit from the coming upswing. They don’t have mort­gages, they have amassed only humble savings, they are highly educated and they are young enough to take a punt. Entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Mike Cannon-Brookes are admired and will be imitated.

Millennials will start their own businesses, specifically trying to create meaningful and lucrative incomes. These new businesses will change the world of work. Not all new businesses need be flashy online businesses. We will see a big move to re-establish a flourishing and sustainable manufacturing sector in Australia. There will be, however, a sustainability twist to manufacturing. Local means less impact on the environment. The Made in Australia label will be rediscovered by millennial-preneurs and will be seen as a ­hallmark of sustainable and fair consumption.

Gen Z (ages three to 20) comprises the hyper-pragmatic kids of pragmatic Gen X. It is the first generation growing up with constant access to internet-connected smart­phones.

Fridays for Futures, the climate change movement whose figurehead is Greta Thunberg, was a natural cause for Gen Z to gravitate to. It’s a global issue that requires localised action and is co-ordinated digitally, the perfect merger of the digital world and real life. To connect with Gen Z, link a global issue to local actions.

Gen Z experiences COVID-19 largely as a prolonged period of home schooling. The transition to online learning comes naturally to Gen Zs and prepares them for a work life where lifelong and self-directed learning is more important than ever. They will grow up with their parents working from home. This sets a new norm regarding what work is supposed to look like.

Gen Z may well be the first generation to gravitate at scale ­towards online education. University education is meant to prepare students in a practical way for their future careers. In some fields, traditional universities risk being perceived as slow-moving and behind the times. Online education may well be the preferred way of study in many IT fields. Once Gen Z ­enters the workforce, only very flexible work arrangements will be acceptable. Gen X parents are teaching their kids the importance of having a practical and flexible mindset in navigating a crisis. The older Gen Zs will bring their postgraduate study forward and sit out the economic downturn. Further education is, in the long run, more beneficial than hunting for a graduate job in a recession. Gen Z will enter the job market during the COVID-19 recovery boom when businesses are keen to hire.

You see how this goes — Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z and we’ve run out of letters in the alphabet. What should we call the generation born after 2018? Well, we simply switch to the Greek alphabet and start over again. Gen Alpha comprises the ­babies of millennials. It’s way too early to predict how Gen Alpha will be affected by COVID-19. There is a fair chance that the only way will be by the ­stories of the 2020 lockdown recalled by their millennial parents at the dinner table. “I get it, Dad, you guys stayed at home for a few months. Big deal.”

Eventually COVID-19 shall pass and Australia will prosper again. Despite surges in unemployment (hitting millennials in arts, retail and hospitality jobs particularly hard) and other temporary setbacks, our young gener­ations will get through COVID-19 just fine. They even may benefit from being forced to grow up quickly and take more ownership of their lives.

Simon Kuestenmacher is director of research at The Demographics Group.