Since 2015, when the first Generation Z cohort entered this age group, labour force participation in the 20 to 24 age group has risen by an above-average 6 percentage points to around 76%. The rise is primarily due to increasing labour market participation among students. These are the findings of a study by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), which was published on Monday.
Nuremberg/Germany, February 18, 2025: Young people are more involved in the labour market today than in previous decades. ‘It’s a common prejudice that Generation Z demands a lot but works little. But it’s wrong. Young people are busier than they have been for a long time,’ explains IAB Head of Research Enzo Weber. From 2015 to 2023, both part-time and full-time employment among 20 to 24-year-olds increased, but part-time employment increased significantly more.
The higher labour force participation of younger people is primarily due to a growing proportion of students with part-time jobs: The employment rate among students aged 20 to 24 between 2015 and 2023 increased by 19.3 percentage points to 56 per cent. At the same time, the employment rate among all non-students in this age group has also risen in the same period – by 1.6 percentage points to 85.9 per cent. ‘The increase in labour force participation rates is largely, but not exclusively, due to higher labour force participation among students,’ says IAB researcher Timon Hellwagner. ‘This finding contradicts common clichés about Generation Z’s unwillingness to work, but fits in with other generation-specific results. For example, young people today do not change jobs more frequently than in the past and the development of desired working hours among young people does not differ from that of older people,’ write Hellwagner and Weber.
The study is based on data from the Federal Employment Agency statistics and the microcensus for the years 2015 to 2023 and is available at (https://www.iab-forum.de/generation-z-noch-ein-klischee-weniger/)
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