Zoomer Generation Having Early Midlife Crisis

Generation Z is struggling across the board, a new study has found, with plummeting financial, mental, physical and social well-being. According to insurance company MetLife's most recent Employee Benefit Trends Study, Gen Z's "holistic health" has dropped by 6 percent since the year before, and is lower than that of similar age groups in the past. This generation, also known as Gen Z or "zoomers", includes people born between 1997 and 2012, meaning that the oldest Gen Z-er is turning 28 this year, and the youngest is turning 13. "Gen Z is not necessarily doing well," Todd Katz, MetLife's 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."

Holistic health in this context is defined as a combination of financial, mental, physical and social health. According to the study, which was conducted in September and will be published in March 2025, only 31 percent of Gen Z employees felt holistically healthy, which was a 6 percent decline from 2024 and 10 percent lower than the average employee. In contrast, 41 percent of millennials and Gen X-ers said they felt holistically healthy, as did 57 percent of baby boomers. Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996, Generation X between 1965 and 1980, and baby boomers between 1946 and 1964. The study also reveals that 46 percent of Gen Z felt stressed (compared to the 35 percent employee average), 35 percent felt depressed (compared to 20 percent average), 44 percent felt burned out (compared to 34 percent), and 30 percent felt isolated (compared to 22 percent). Compared to 21 to 25-year-old workers in 2018, today's Gen Z feels 11 percent more stressed, 9 percent more overwhelmed, 8 percent less happy, 8 percent less engaged and 5 percent less successful. Katz suggests that much of this may be related to financial worries. "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. " Compared to the year before, Gen Z also reported an 8 percent decline in financial health. These findings are supported by another survey from late last year, which found that 38 percent of the Gen Z respondents said they were experiencing a "midlife crisis," with 30 percent of Gen Z saying that financial issues were their primary source of stress. Another study found that 60 percent of Gen Z women and 45 percent of Gen Z men were concerned that the high cost of living would be a barrier to their future financial security. Katz suggests that employers can help improve their Gen Z employees' holistic health by offering a series of benefits, and help them use them effectively. "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. "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. "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." Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about Gen Z? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.