{"id":2361,"date":"2020-12-04T11:55:07","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T11:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/?p=2361"},"modified":"2020-12-18T14:12:30","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T14:12:30","slug":"covid-19-and-gen-z","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/2020\/12\/04\/covid-19-and-gen-z\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 and Gen Z"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stage three student Joel Pointon blogs about some of the economic aspects of the covid 19 pandemic on his generation.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“\u2018Unprecedented\u2019 is a word which has been thrown around recently. I am sure lots can relate<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u2013 it has been a year like no other. When it comes to Economics, things are no different; we have seen the unthinkable<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and experienced the unpredictable. In many ways, this crisis will make existing inequalities worse; those who were doing well before are likely to continue to, whereas those who were struggling before will be made even worse off.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A particular inequality of interest (besides gender,\u00a0<\/span>ethnicity<\/span>\u00a0and others) is\u00a0<\/span>intergenerational inequality<\/span>. The older you are, the more likely you are to emerge from this crisis relatively well (relatively is a key word there). For young people, they have been hit by lost education,\u00a0<\/span>redundancy\/furlough, and\u00a0<\/span>increased national debt (which we will have to pay off!).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lost education means that students struggle to remain competitive in displaying the workplace skills that others\u00a0<\/span>(<\/span>of different ages<\/span>, that\u00a0<\/span>haven\u2019t<\/span>\u00a0missed education)<\/span>\u00a0have.<\/span>\u00a0Further, a contraction in GDP (recession) means that firms are producing less, so need less workers \u2013\u00a0<\/span>it\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0harder to get a job! Young people who were employed coming into this crisis are also\u00a0<\/span>3x\u00a0<\/span>more likely to be on 0-hours contracts<\/span>\u00a0(Source: LFS<\/a>)<\/span>\u00a0than the average Joe. E<\/span>ven if they\u00a0<\/span>aren\u2019t<\/span>\u00a0on such contracts,\u00a0<\/span>they\u00a0<\/span>will have less experience generally (<\/span>the unfortunate side effect of finding a job after leaving education<\/span>), so are likely to be the first to be laid off!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is reflected in the fact that 24% of\u00a0<\/span>16-24 year<\/span>\u00a0olds who rent accommodation were on furlough (<\/span>Health Foundation<\/a>). Giv<\/span>en that 68% of the same age group are in private rented accommodation, it shows how many young people are likely to struggle to pay their rent once the furlough scheme ends. This will compound<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>existing mental health struggles.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, young people are more likely to struggle to compete in the labour\u00a0<\/span>market, and<\/span>\u00a0are more likely to be unemployed both now and over the long term. To\u00a0<\/span>contrast this,<\/span>\u00a0the elderly\u00a0<\/span>have<\/span>\u00a0their income guaranteed with a pension. Adding to this, the Triple Lock pension system<\/a> means that their incomes will rise by at least 2.5%! All of this is without even considering national debt \u2013 which is rising and expected to continue to for a number of years\u00a0<\/span>(OBR, IFS<\/a>)\u00a0<\/span>\u2013 this will inevitably require higher taxes, which disproportionately affect young people, who will shoulder the cost for longer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Is this all bad news? Well, I will admit it does make for a depressing read. Fortunately, the chances are that if you are reading this, then you<\/span>\u00a0are<\/span>\u00a0an Economi<\/span>cs<\/span> student. We are statistically less likely to be unemployed <\/span>(own calculations from LFS, as above) \u2013 clearly the skills\u00a0<\/span>you gain through studying for an<\/span>\u00a0Econ degree are valued in the marketplace. This\u00a0<\/span>isn\u2019t<\/span>\u00a0to say that it won\u2019t be hard to find a job \u2013 not at all \u2013 but<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0fortunately<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0Economics students should emerge relatively better than other graduates<\/span>, so take some encouragement from that\u2026<\/span> “<\/span><\/p>\n

Joel Pointon is a Stage Three Student and President of the Economics Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch Exploring Economics: The Impact of Covid 19<\/a> here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stage three student Joel Pointon blogs about some of the economic aspects of the covid 19 pandemic on his generation.\u00a0   “\u2018Unprecedented\u2019 is a word … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66395,"featured_media":2365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[167396,225120,225117,225115,225116,225119,225118,225055],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2361"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2397,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions\/2397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/economics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}