Gen Zers are fighting an uphill mental health battle that is impacting their studies as much as their wellbeing, and it appears the fight is now reaching a tipping point for the UK workforce.
The latest data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that 9.25 million working-age adults were not looking for work, also known as economically inactive, in the final quarter of 2023.
This is a worrying increase in inactivity that has been boosted by young people, with three million working-age adults under 25 now registering as not looking for work.
Although many of these people are students, statisticians have flagged the rise in youth unemployment as particularly alarming.
Young people abandoning the world of work
“An important trend we are seeing is that of young people. If we look at the last year we have seen that the increases in inactivity have been concentrated in the younger age groups, particularly in that 16 to 24 age group,” said Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the ‘ONS. BBC Radio 4.
At the end of last year, 4.5% of young people aged 16 to 24 were not actively looking for work. This compares with just 0.1% of young people recorded as inactive in the first quarter of 2020.
This comes despite ONS data suggesting there were 908,000 vacancies in the final quarter of 2023. While the number has fallen over the past two years, it remains above pre-COVID levels.
These are the latest worrying figures that point to a growing disconnect among young people in the workplace that continues to confound politicians.
There is growing concern that rising unemployment is not an economic phenomenon, but revolves around deteriorating mental health among young people.
“What’s worrying is that these rising levels of inactivity have coincided with a youth mental health crisis,” said Louise Murphy, senior economist at the UK’s Resolution Foundation (RF) think tank.
“Young people aged 18 to 24 are now more likely to suffer from a common mental disorder than any other age group – and it is the least qualified young people who face the worst economic consequences, with non-graduates suffer from significantly more mental health problems. they will probably be unemployed compared to their graduate peers.”
Murphy said Fortune that changes were needed in the workforce and education system to ensure young people received adequate mental health support before starting their careers.
The mental health crisis extends to the workplace
Generation Z and younger millennials show various signs of difficulty adapting to the workforce.
While this has historically been an intergenerational issue, there are signs that it is having a particularly high impact on the new generation of young workers.
For young people who have managed to enter the job market, a growing tide of data suggests that mental health struggles don’t end once they get a job offer.
Research conducted by RF found that Gen Z workers took more sick leave than Gen X workers 20 years their senior, marking a symbolic shift in historical absence trends.
The think tank attributed the rise in illnesses to the mental health crisis among young people, pointing out that more than a third of young people aged 18 to 24 suffered from a “common mental disorder” (CMD) such as stress, anxiety or depression .
“Youth unemployment due to health problems is a real and growing trend; It is worrying that young people in their twenties, just embarking on adult life, are more likely to be out of work due to health problems than young people in their forties,” the RF researchers said.
A collective increase in inactivity is also having effects at the aggregate level of the UK economy.
The ONS noted that the typical UK worker reduced their working week by 0.3 hours between 2019 and 2022. This decline was driven by men, who worked almost an hour a week less than in 2019 .
The statistics body said this is starting to have an effect on economic growth, particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.