All we ever hear about Gen Z (the cohort born between 1997 and 2012) is that “they’re work shy about everything, besides learning TikTok dance routines!” But new data pours cold water straight on the theory that everyone in this age bracket is set on becoming an influencer.
Turns out, in a world where AI is on the rise and crushing entry-level job opportunities, and the social media landscape is fragmenting (falling foul of bots, deepfakes, etc.), those currently between the ages of 14 and 29 are planning alternative futures that don’t involve saying “Hi guys, welcome to my channel!” or posting GRWM confessionals.
Just 5 percent of Gen Z now say they would like to become an influencer, according to a Yahoo! poll, which starkly contrasts with a 2023 report by Morning Consult which put that figure at an enormous 57 percent.
Instead, the most popular dream career choice is to be an entrepreneur (18 percent) and crucially, one who isn’t in the spotlight. Elsewhere, 17 percent said becoming a respected intellectual or professor is the most appealing (but does that actually just mean becoming a bro podcast host who regurgitates pseudoscience and swerves fact-checking? Let’s hope not), and 14 percent would like to be a doctor. Around 3 percent are keen to become lawyers.
Earlier this year, Employment Hero, an HR firm also noted a 16.8 percent rise in Gen Z entering the construction and trade industries, as many white-collar industries make mass layoffs.
So what does this show us? Well, given that just 9 percent of Gen Zers said they’d like to become famous, there’s a real shift away from chasing clout and wanting to publicize private lives, in a bid to get ahead in the attention economy. Perhaps a realization has dawned that the market is overcrowded, while being simultaneously set to a backdrop of people craving ways to engage in “analog living”—while videos, ironically, showing 9-to-5 office day routines, regularly go viral. Commenters often comment on how soothing it must be to have structure, to know that day after day you’ll wake up and wear a crisp white shirt and carry a salad in a jar in your backpack, before sitting at a desk that faintly whiffs of anti-bac spray.
There’s a clear craving for stability, in a world that so far for those in their mid-teens to late 20s has been anything but…Financial crash! Pandemic! AI! Cost of living crisis! Housing market that resembles a Jenga block tower after the fateful brick keeping it together has been yanked out! Evidently, the next load of people to enter the economy are sick of working hard for others and want to be their own bosses, with a better work-life balance. Maybe then the kids will be alright, after all?
