Gen Z is not OK, MetLife workplace study says

Generation Z is the newest age cohort to enter the workforce, and they are poised to make up nearly half of the nation’s workers in the next five years. But although these young adults are emerging as the future of America’s workforce, their financial health is not good, and they need support from their employers.

Those were among the findings in the most recent MetLife Employee Benefit Trends Study, which was conducted in September and will be released in March.

“Gen Z is not necessarily doing well,” Todd Katz, MetLife executive vice president of group benefits, told InsuranceNewsNet. “Our study showed holistic health for all employee age groups is down a bit, but it’s down the most for Gen Z.”

Gen Z employees scored lower in their holistic health measurements than did similar age groups five years ago and earlier, Katz said.

Holistic health study results

What is holistic health? Katz described it as physical, mental, social and financial health.

How did Gen Z score in the latest MetLife study?

Gen Z employees experienced a 6%-point drop in holistic health in the past year. Compared to other generations, Gen Z reported higher levels of stress, depression, isolation, and burnout. Gen Z also reported a significant 8 percentage point drop in financial health as concerns related to savings, high interest rates and affordable housing weighed on the workforce’s youngest generation.

Other survey findings show fewer than 1 in 3 Gen Z employees feel holistically healthy (31%)—a -6% drop from 2024 and 10% lower than employees overall (42%), millennials (41%), Generation X (41%) and baby boomers (57%).  The 26%-point holistic health gap between Gen Z (the least healthy cohort) and boomers (the healthiest) is now larger than it has ever been.

Declining Gen Z health is partly due to heightened feelings of loneliness, depression, stress and burnout. Compared to the average employee, this generation feels:

• • More stressed (46% vs. 35%).
  • More depressed (35% vs. 20%).
  • More burned out (44% vs. 34%).
  • More isolated (30% vs. 22%).

Compared to workers aged 21-25 in 2018, today’s Gen Z employees feel:

• • Less successful (-5%).
  • Less happy (-8%).
  • Less engaged (-8%).
  • More stressed or anxious (+11%).
  • More overwhelmed (+9%).

Why is Gen Z so holistically unhealthy?

Why is Gen Z so holistically unhealthy? Financial stress is at the root of much of Gen Z’s declining health, Katz said.

“They attribute a lot of it to their financial burdens,” he said. “These people are trying to save money for major life expenses when everything costs more. That fits in with the context of why they are experiencing stress and depression.”

Employers can do three things to help make their Gen Z workers holistically healthier, Katz said.

The first is offering a broad set of workplace benefits.

“The population in the workplace is more diverse than ever, with multiple generations in the workforce, and people of different generations have different needs,” he said. Gen Z workers are interested in benefits such as student debt assistance, child care benefits, pet insurance, commuter benefits and benefits that help them create emergency savings.

Communication is the second thing employers can do to reach Gen Z, Katz said.

“Employers must communicate benefits in a way that helps workers understand how to match the benefits to their needs, as well as what’s offered in the benefits. That’s important – not only during open enrollment season – but throughout the year because people have changes in their lives throughout the year.”

The third thing employers must do, Katz said, “is help their workers use those benefits in the most effective way possible.

“One of the biggest challenges we find is that even if you offer all the great benefits and workers sign up for them, if they don’t use them and have a great experience, their satisfaction is much lower, which means they don’t get the benefit of holistic health.”

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Susan Rupe is editor in chief, magazine, for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected].