Cost of living now a bigger worry than climate for Millennials and Gen Z

The cost of living crisis has overtaken climate change as the leading concern of Millennials and Gen Z for the first time, a new survey has revealed.

It found that 38 per cent of Millennials, and 31 per cent of Gen Zs, felt more anxious about the impact of surging prices than anything else.

The research on Wednesday from consultants Deloitte defined Millennials as people born between January 1983 and December 1994 and GenZs as those born between January 1995 and December 2003.

Around half of UK Gen Zs and Millennials say they live from pay-day to pay-day and worry that their monthly income will not be able to cover all their expenses.

To make ends meet, 42 per cent of Gen Zs and 39 per cent of Millennials have taken on a side hustle.

Will Gosling, partner and human capital lead at Deloitte said: “For the first time in the history of Deloitte’s Gen Z and Millennial Survey, now in its eleventh year, cost of living has emerged as the top concern.

“We can see that Gen Zs and Millennials feel deeply concerned about the state of the world and their own futures and are actively trying to balance the challenges of their everyday lives with their desire to drive societal change. There is an urgent need for business leaders and employers to empower their people to do so.”

The research also found that 48 per cent of Gen Zs and 51 per cent of Millennials feel stressed all or most of the time with financial worries being the top contributor. Nearly half of UK Gen Zs and a majority of UK Millennials say they feel burned out due to their workloads.

Mr Gosling said: “Concerns around the cost of living and climate change are likely to continue to disrupt the lives and mental health of Gen Zs and millennials. Employers need to play a stronger role in supporting them by listening to their needs and taking action.

“Business leaders can mitigate the causes of stress and burnout by providing better mental health resources, setting boundaries to protect the work-life balance, creating stigma-free environments, and empowering their people to drive change.”

However, the research also found that green issues are still a priority for young people. According to the survey, 56 per cent of UK Gen Zs and 72 per cent of Millennials say they are often trying to protect the environment.