It’s almost a rite of passage: Young adults are perennially scrutinized for their spending habits, career choices, and financial decisions. And then, eventually, as they come of age in the workforce, the world is forced to listen to them.

That moment is now arriving for Gen Z.

Although the younger end of Gen Z (overall, those born between 1997 and 2012) is firmly in its school years, the older members of the generation are approaching 30. That means business and civic leaders are increasingly keen on understanding all of their generational preferences — where they want to live, what jobs they seek, and how they intend to spend their resources. After all, Gen Z is a top source of new residents in the city, with far more moving in than out, at least for now.

“This is not a case of a tail wagging the dog,” says Thomas Ginsberg, a senior officer of Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia research and policy initiative. “This is actually going to determine what happens to the economy at a city or metro level.”

On Wednesday, Ginsberg and Pew Charitable Trusts released a new report (“Gen Z Likes Philadelphia but Feels Frustrated by Low Pay, Limited Jobs”) which offers a glimpse into economic attitudes held by Philadelphia-area Gen Z residents and what they might mean for the future of the region. [For another perspective on this topic, read Lauren J. Smith’s guest commentary here.] To produce the report, Pew researchers spoke to 54 Philadelphia residents between the ages of 18 and 29 in a series of focus groups, asking them about jobs, career ambitions and the factors that might persuade them to stay in the city — or leave it.

Maybe the question isn’t whether they are going to leave, but instead, where do they go? If they’re only going to the suburbs, maybe we need to change our outlook.

Let’s take the good news first: Participants described strong attachments to Philly and its quality of life, praising the attractive mix of affordability, social life, and culture. The bad news? Jobs and careers loom large in the minds of Gen Z, and on that front, Philly leaves them wanting more. Outside the thriving healthcare industry, they lamented a lack of higher-paying careers in fields such as technology, finance, and the arts.

So much so, in fact, 58 percent of participants in the Pew report said they were unlikely to still be living in the city five to 10 years from now. (By comparison, in 2014, a Pew survey of 20- to 34-year-olds found that 50 percent expected to stay.)

So, what might convince them to stay?

I sat down with Ginsberg, the lead author of the report, to unpack some of Gen Z’s attitudes and why the findings might be useful for business and civic leaders. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Malcolm Burnley: It seems like demographers and researchers are constantly studying the opinions of young people. Why is that, exactly?

Thomas Ginsberg: Well, as the saying goes, children are the future. And I’m only half-joking. In general, we pay attention because everyone’s trying to see what’s coming down the pike in the economy. This generation is not only going to be workers, but also business-owners, investors, and homeowners. So their feelings about work and what it means to work will matter for years to come.

But this generation of rising adults, Gen Z — about half of whom are already in the workforce — is particularly interesting for a few reasons. They’ve gone through some pretty extraordinary things, including two economic shocks in their short lifetimes. They’ve lived through the economic downturn during the pandemic and also [the subsequent] high-inflation conditions we haven’t seen in a long time.

The pandemic clearly had a deep influence on Gen Z perceptions of money, work and wealth. What about that relationship surprised you in the focus groups?

Each generation lives through a certain epoch in the economy, and in the world, which shapes their outlook. We heard a lot about financial institutions, particularly about retirement planning, about retirement savings, and even about participating in 401ks at work — and the depth of that skepticism surprised me. Covid produced an economic shock, but it wasn’t directly related to financial institutions. What we came to realize is that the aftermath of the Great Recession, the rise of college debt, and other events also played a factor in this thinking. I listened to one of the people in the focus group say, flat out, she’s not going to bother to save for retirement because she’ll never retire. Those comments, which were pretty widespread, sober you up a bit.

While Gen Z is down on retirement accounts, they’re high on healthcare sponsored by employers. I found that interesting because young adults have the highest rates of being uninsured.

That gets back to your point about the impact of Covid. These young people have just gone through a period where not having health coverage was a really big problem — not only for them, but for everyone. National polls have found similar things about this being an important issue for Gen Z.

What surprised you about the participants’ feelings toward Philly as a whole?

I didn’t expect to hear so many people talk about wanting to move back to Philly if they do leave for a job, and there might be a little bit of consolation in that. As we point out at the very end of the report, Pew is involved in a project to support cross-regional cooperation and collaboration across Southeast Pennsylvania. Too often, we think about city-versus-suburbs. If somebody moves to the suburbs, then we think we’ve lost them. But maybe that’s an attitude we need to change.

Maybe the question isn’t whether they are going to leave, but instead, where do they go? If they’re only going to the suburbs, maybe we need to change our outlook. Tax collectors draw a significant distinction between those boundaries [city vs. suburbs], but most of the rest of us don’t.

And yet, 58 percent of participants saying they don’t expect to live here in five to 10 years — that’s a big number.

A few years ago, in 2019, Pew did a survey of people who’d moved out of Philadelphia. What we found by asking all kinds of different questions was that jobs were the most common reason why they moved out. But they were not necessarily leaving because they couldn’t find a job in Philly, but because there was a better job somewhere else. So, there was more of a pull factor [to somewhere else], not just a push factor driving them away.

Civic leaders, city and regional educators, government officials — they should all listen to the fact that Gen Z is frustrated with low pay and the lack of high-quality career paths outside of healthcare. They should remember that these other sectors need our support, whether that’s through training programs, skills development, or career paths.

This generation strongly prefers hybrid or remote work and flexible hours. How can the local economy adjust to those needs?

Gen Z has taken lots of hits and ridicule for their feelings about work-life balance. It’s important for them to be able to see themselves outside of work, and they are attuned to the reality of pay not rising with the cost of living. This could also be a signal that employers need to pay more attention to how emphatic Gen Z is about work-life balance. Things like PTO [Paid Time Off] and flexible hours might be worth the investment, if this rising generation is so focused on it. To them, having hopes for work-life balance is not the same as a reticence to work hard. It’s about remembering what work is really for — and that comes down to affording you personal fulfillment and a personal life. And what they’re finding is that most jobs these days don’t deliver on that.

What other recommendations should the region’s business and civic leaders take away from this report?

A few more things. One, employers can make the city more attractive by helping to make neighborhoods around their workplaces safer. Of course, these efforts come with some costs — but at some level, isn’t the benefit worth it to the employer, too? Having a stable or growing talent supply could actually be a selling point.

Another thing to consider: Commuting really matters to Gen Z. The focus groups talked a lot about the length of commutes, expensive parking and traffic jams. In fact, they said this would be a decisive thing for them when picking a place to live. So I think SEPTA and transit planners should always bear in mind, firstly, that the attitude is there. It’s coming from a group that’s mobile and will pick up and move if they don’t like something. Other mid-career people won’t necessarily move; they’ll just put up with it and sit in traffic.

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