Job market: Contrary to popular belief: Generation Z works more frequently than all predecessors
For as long as anyone can remember, young people have been regarded as lazy, and Generation Z in particular is often accused of this. However, data from the Federal Agency now contradicts the common cliché of young people's lack of willingness to work.
Berlin. The Chancellor is calling for the Germans to work more, and CSU leader Markus Söder says: "An extra hour of work per week would bring us enormous economic growth and is really not too much to ask." The youth could do just that. A study by the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB) at the Federal Employment Agency shows that Generation Z is active in the labor market as often as young people have not been for decades.
The researchers re-evaluated the employment participation of Generation Z based on the microcensus. Specifically, the employment rate of 20- to 24-year-olds rose by 7.1 percentage points to 76.8 percent over the ten years between 2015 and 2025. The trend continued even in the most recent economic crisis: since 2023, the employment rate of young people has increased by a further 0.9 percentage points.
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With this, the labor market participation among young adults has "remarkably clearly increased" since 2015, emphasize IAB researchers Timon Hellwagner and Enzo Weber. This is shown by the comparison: although the age group of 25- to 64-year-olds continued their decades-long upward trend, the increase between 2015 and 2025 was only 3.1 percentage points, and from 2023 to 2025 it was 0.4 percentage points.
The researchers explain this long-term trend towards more work primarily with the growing employment participation of women and older people.
Translated by urgent.news. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
