28 NEWSWEEK.COM JUNE 28, 2019
JOBS
president of the Pew Research Center wrote in an
article last January, comparing the conditions Gen
Z will face to their older brothers and sisters.
Just in case anyone should forget what the specter
haunting today’s youth looked like, Dimock pointed
to a 2012 Pew report that quantified the dispropor-
tionate share of the post-subprime bubble misery
shouldered by the millennials. Back then only about
54 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 to
24 were employed, the lowest level since the govern-
ment began collecting data in 1948. Those with jobs
had experienced a greater drop in weekly earnings
than any other age group over the previous four years.
And the gap in employment between young adults
and all those of working age was 15 percent—the
widest in recorded history. About half of millennials
surveyed said they had taken jobs they didn’t want to
pay the bills, more than a third said they had gone
back to school because of the economy and one in
four said they had moved back in with their parents.
“The poor economic climate affected their life
choices, future earnings and entrance into adult-
hood in a way that may not be the case for their
younger counterparts, wrote Dimock.
Kyle LeScoezec, who graduated from Ohio State
University with a major in business and a minor in en-
gineering this May, says the events of 2008 produced
a “healthy pessimistic attitude” that “things aren’t al-
ways going to work out.” He was around 10 or 11 at the
time, and recalls his father, who was a financial advisor,
having sleepless nights and being constantly on edge.
Many of his clients, LeScoezec recalls, were calling him
“wondering what’s happened to all their money.”
By the time he arrived on campus a few years lat-
er, LeScoezec, a native of Cleveland, already had an
idea of what he wanted to do, choosing Ohio State
because it would allow him to study both business
and engineering through its integrated Business
and engineering program. He has done several in-
ternships—including at large and small companies.
And for the past year and a half he has been intern-
ing at a technology startup in downtown Columbus
and starts a job there full-time after graduation.
Even many of those who have decided to pursue
seemingly riskier vocations, it seems, have a backup
plan. Standing at the ice machine in the hallway
outside the basketball courts at the University of
Bridgeport gym in Connecticut on a recent day, Ka-
trell Thompson-Nickey, 22, talked about his dreams
NEGATIVE VIBES
Unlike idealistic boomers,
the parents of today’s
graduates are known for
their cynicism. Top to
bottom: wealthy parents
were busted trying to
buy their kids’ way into
top schools such as the
University of Southern
California; the 1950s, an
age of rising incomes and
at least the stereoptype
of stable family life, now
seems like a distant
world; the 1994 movie
Reality Bites, starring
Ethan Hawke and Winona
5 \GHULVDQLFRQLFɿOP
for Generation X, now
parents of incoming
college students.of parlaying his music major into a lucrative career
working as an audio engineer and a songwriter. Just
in case that doesn’t work out, however, he is pursu-
ing a masters in music education.
“Ideally everybody wants to have a career that
you are happy in, but also something that they are
stable in,” he says. “They want those two things, in
their ideal job. I can really pursue what I want to
do after this. But I need to have this backup in place
now instead of trying to do this in 20 years when I
have a family and a lot more responsibilities.”Another Great Generation
there is an upside to this generational caution
and pragmatism. Gen Z may just turn out to be the
most competent, productive and high achieving
generation we’ve seen in a while. In addition to be-
ing the most diverse generation in American histo-
ry, they also are on track to be the most educated.
In many ways, the same skills they have brought
to bear as they have meticulously plotted out their
college careers with an eye on a stable job will make
them highly effective in the workplace. Gen Zs may
be cautious, but they are by no means unempow-
ered. Many are socially conscious and optimistic