Gen Z shares a blueprint for resilient economies

The future for the youth population was, unsurprisingly, a key focus at Davos 2023 as policymakers and businesses work to recover from recent unexpected challenges. Ongoing issues like the climate crisis, combined with the pandemic and more recent economic uncertainty, have focused minds on how best to create resilient economies for the future.

Enter Generation Z: those born between 1997 and 2012. This group will make up the largest proportion of the global workforce by 2025. It will be critical in navigating the economic, geopolitical and environmental landscapes ahead. To understand their views on key topics like investment priorities, digital healthcare and digital skills, Dell’s Future Proof report¹ surveyed 15,000 Gen Z adults (aged 18–26) globally, including 1018 from Australia. Encouragingly, it found that nearly half (48% of Australians surveyed) are willing to accept limiting their country’s shorter-term economic health, like lower real GDP growth, for investment in a longer-term strategy that addresses environmental sustainability.

At the same time, however, their confidence in governments’ ability to deliver a digital-first, resilient global economy is in the balance. In Australia, 28% have low or no confidence in governments’ ability to deliver, while 45% are undecided and 27% have high confidence.

To get Gen Z’s trust, and secure our collective future prosperity, there needs to be a combined effort now across government, education and the private sector to invest in the infrastructure and skills that will underpin tomorrow’s digital-first economies.

Investing in a sustainable future

No matter where you live, the reality of the climate crisis is always present. Gen Z will bear the brunt of the action we take on climate change and has a clear message: 61% of Australian respondents believe technology must play a central role in the fight against the climate crisis.

They also recognise the importance of investing in the infrastructure that will underpin more sustainable solutions. Just over a third of Australians believe sustainable energy is an area government can act in, while 38% think creating a circular economy is an important goal. The third key investment area for Australians was in sustainable public transport, where 29% believed government should be making investments. A quarter also expressed support for greater sustainability education for citizens.

Many governments are already setting long-term funding pledges for the technology and science sectors centred on how they can help climate change. For example, the Western Australian state government recently invested in the Setonix supercomputer, which will help understand the effects of climate change playing out over the next 75 years.

Revolutionising healthcare access

Unsurprisingly given the events of the last four years, health is another key priority among Gen Z globally; however, half of Gen Z in Australia have low or neutral confidence in their data being stored compliantly by healthcare providers.

The pandemic accelerated the rollout of digital healthcare solutions, with countries introducing telehealth solutions when face-to-face consultations had to stop overnight. The global telehealth industry is now forecast to see exponential growth, with some predicting it will hit upwards of $800bn globally in the next decade. At the same time, however, Gen Z respondents feel there is more providers could do. Many respondents feel long wait times put them off making a health appointment in the last two years.

Pressures on access will increase as populations continue to grow. To safeguard these healthcare infrastructures, we must therefore redouble efforts to roll out secure, accessible digital healthcare solutions.

Plugging the skills gap

Responses from Gen Z on topics like the importance of digital skills for their current and planned careers suggests we should do more to equip current and future generations. Despite three-quarters (76%) of Gen Z adults stating that learning new digital skills is essential to making sure they have plenty of career options and secure continuous employment in the future, almost half of Australians said their school only taught them very basic computing skills.

Asked about ways to address this issue, over a third (38%) of Australian respondents called for a collective response from governments, policymakers and education providers to bridge the digital skills gap. This cannot be a one-and-done moment, either. Curricula and training courses must be updated to keep pace with the rate of technological innovation.

As we saw in Davos, we are all facing evolving challenges. Gen Z’s feedback shows that if we make the right choices and build trust, our youngest generations see the value of investing today for a more resilient and prosperous future. If we act collectively and decisively, we can address these pressing issues and set our societies up for success.

^{1 Dell’s Future Proof report surveyed 15,000 respondents aged between 18 and 26 across 15 international locations: Australia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, UK, Brazil, Mexico, and North America (Canada, US).}

Image credit: iStock.com/FilippoBacci