In This Economy, Why Is Getting a Job So Hard? A Gen Z Perspective

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People love to call Gen Z lazy, too particular, or soft. The truth is that most of Gen Z is not avoiding work at all. Gen Z is chasing it. Applications are submitted, resumes are polished, new skills are picked up, and then comes the waiting. And waiting. In today's economy, finding employment feels unreasonably difficult, and for Gen Z, this challenge hits especially hard.

For many young people, this represents their first real attempt to enter the workforce. Gen Z was raised with the promise that if they studied hard, graduated, and gave their best effort, opportunities would follow. What was found instead tells a different story. Entry-level positions somehow demand years of experience. Internships often pay nothing or almost nothing. And those rejection letters, when they arrive at all, feel detached and impersonal.

The mismatch between job seekers and available positions has become one of the most frustrating realities facing young professionals today. A single job posting can attract hundreds or even thousands of applicants. For Gen Z, this means competing not just with peers, but also with experienced professionals who have been laid off and are now pursuing the same roles. It is not an even playing field, and far too often, it feels like Gen Z simply does not exist to employers.

Businesses have also grown more cautious. When economic conditions feel unstable, many companies postpone hiring or shrink their teams. Rather than investing time in developing young talent, employers search for people who can step in and perform immediately with little to no training. This puts Gen Z at a significant disadvantage, because every professional needs that first opportunity to learn and grow.

Then there are the expectations placed on young workers. Many positions labeled as "junior" demand advanced abilities, multiple responsibilities, and long hours, while offering minimal compensation. When Gen Z pushes back against this dynamic, criticism follows. But wanting fair pay and reasonable boundaries is not laziness. It is simply awareness that the old ways were not always fair or sustainable.

The hiring process itself has grown increasingly cold and mechanical. Applications pass through automated systems before any human actually reviews them. A resume can get discarded simply because it lacks specific keywords. This makes job hunting feel less about what Gen Z can actually do and more about whether the application happened to be formatted correctly.

Still, Gen Z refuses to give up. Self-learning happens through online resources, portfolios are created, freelance work is taken on, and different paths are tried. Adjustment continues to a world that never stops shifting, even when it wears young people down.

Finding a job is genuinely difficult right now, particularly for this generation. That difficulty does not reflect personal shortcomings. It reflects the economy, the systems being navigated, and the particular moment being lived through. Struggling does not mean falling behind. Sometimes it just means putting in effort within a world that was never designed to make things easy.