Gen Z isn’t doomed after all

By Zanny Minton Beddoes Editor-in-chief The Economist. Some 2bn people were born between 1997 and 2012, and so are part of Generation Z. With two Gen Z-ers in my family (along with a couple of millennials) and a growing group of talented twenty-somethings in The Economist’s office, I am fascinated by this new generation of teenagers and young adults. Much of what you read about Gen Z is worrying: that they are defined by anxiety, they spend less time socialising and are less likely to be in a relationship. But it turns out this picture is incomplete, as Rachana Shanbhogue, our business affairs editor, and Callum Williams, our senior economics writer (themselves millennials), point out in this week’s cover story. The popular narrative omits the roughly four-fifths of the world’s 12- to 27-year-olds who live in emerging economies. Thanks to growth and the spread of technology, youngsters in places like Jakarta, Mumbai or Nairobi are richer, healthier and more educated than their parents were. In the rich world, too, the picture is rosier than people think. Wages for Gen Z are rising at a much faster pace than they are for older workers, and youth unemployment is at its lowest in decades. Red-hot demand for workers helps, as does the fact that Gen Z-ers are wisely acquiring marketable skills. It is only natural for the old to worry about the young. But we should celebrate Gen Z’s resourcefulness, and its successes, too. Finally, next week we will launch our latest newsletter, Middle East Dispatch. Events in the Middle East will affect profoundly what happens in the rest of the world.