You Did Everything Right So Why Is This So Hard?
The realities of the new job market. Gen Z isn’t disengaged because they’re entitled or lazy.
A perspective on work, resilience, and intergenerational responsibility
GEN Z PERSPECTIVES
What young adults are actually saying
When I recently sat down with a group of people in their twenties and asked them why they thought Gen Z gets a bad rap, I expected pushback. I anticipated an adamant defense of their work ethic, their creativity, their ambition. What I got instead was something more candid – and more sobering.
Almost universally, they weren’t arguing that the stereotypes were wrong. They were questioning whether the traditional markers of effort even matter anymore. Outside a narrow cluster of fields – finance, investment banking, consulting, and a handful of successful startups – many young adults say they cannot identify a reliable path to the kind of financial stability that once seemed like a reasonable expectation.
“We don’t know what we’re working for anymore,” one young professional shared in a recent therapy session.
That’s not apathy. That’s a rational response to a disorienting landscape. Even more striking: many young people describe a sense that merit and hard work, even when paired with talent and intelligence, are no longer sufficient to get ahead in the way they once were. When effort feels disconnected from outcome, motivation naturally falters. In a recent session a young woman stated, “I am working so hard to be in a headspace that’s not soul crushing but I am not given the opportunity to work hard at the actual thing I want to do.”
There is also something deeper at work. Gen Z has come of age in an era of near-constant upheaval – September 11th, the 2008 financial crisis, school shootings, a global pandemic. As one young woman recently shared in my office: “I just think we have to be prepared for the worst – because all of these ‘once in a lifetime’ events have already happened to us since we were born.”
A former college athlete who graduated in spring 2025 and has yet to find a job in her field of study, she and I spent part of a recent session discussing what it looks like to approach life from a defensive rather than an offensive posture. Like many recent graduates, she is reading the professional landscape carefully and responding accordingly by building a résumé through several part-time jobs rather than working a full time dream role.
That orientation toward preparedness isn’t pessimism. It’s pattern recognition. And in many ways, it has made this generation more scrappy and resilient than they’re given credit for. Many Gen Z’s are willing to cobble together side hustles, pivot careers, and adapt quickly. They are, in many respects, remarkably resourceful.
OLDER GENERATION PERCEPTIONS
Why the “lazy and entitled” label misses the mark
It is easy, and increasingly common, to hear employers and people in their fifties and sixties describe younger workers as apathetic or entitled. Of course, unmotivated workers exist in every generation, but we owe it to these young people to examine our impulse to stereotype.
When we label an entire generation as lazy, something convenient happens: we’re let off the hook. The more distance we put between ourselves and the struggles of younger adults, the less we feel the pull to help. Stereotypes function as emotional othering, and in this case, isolating a generation seems deeply counterproductive to our collective future. In my work with young adults and as a mother of three young adults, I see people who are not checked out. They are unmoored. There’s a difference, and it matters.
“Lumping a whole generation into one non-nuanced stereotype is short sighted and self-defeating as a society. We can do better than that.” – Reflection from Dr. Cooper’s clinical practice
A RECENT HISTORY OF THE ENTRY-LEVEL JOB MARKET
The market has changed and not in their favor
To understand what Gen Z is up against, it helps to look at the numbers. In a March 2026, New York Times piece titled “Young Graduates Face Grimmest Job Market in Years,” reporter Sydney Ember documented a significant deterioration in opportunities for new college graduates. According to one analysis cited in the article, the unemployment rate for recent college grads has climbed as high as 5.6 percent.
The culprit isn’t primarily artificial intelligence, at least not yet. Economists point instead to what has been called a “low hire, low fire” labor market: companies have grown cautious about adding headcount, which means the natural pipeline of entry-level opportunities has thinned considerably.
It is worth acknowledging that prior generations faced their own economic headwinds. According to an NBC News report from the early 2000s, U.S. unemployment hit 10.1 percent in late 1982 before eventually recovering by 1989. History has a way of repeating itself, and what people in their twenties and thirties are experiencing is most likely temporary. Perhaps most tellingly, a meaningful number of people who entered the workforce in the 1980s and 1990s went on to accumulate substantial wealth by midlife.
HOW TO HELP
Practical ways to support people in their twenties
The good news is that this isn’t a story without agency. Recent graduates may be on a longer runway before takeoff, but markets do change and the people around them can make an enormous difference in how they navigate the wait. Here are some ways to help:
- If your recent grad is working in a field unrelated to their degree, reframe it. The traditional, linear professional path may be congested right now. Resilience is built when you encourage a young person to step through the doors that open, rather than continuously knocking on the ones that remain firmly closed.
- Offer intentional mentorship. Think back to your own early career – did someone open a door for you? Identify a young professional who could use that same gesture. Mentors are in short supply right now.
- Resist catastrophizing. Remind yourself, and them, that very little in life is permanent. Reflect on the cyclical ebb and flow of job markets throughout history, and help them see each opportunity as a step in the right direction.
- Ask what would make their professional life more satisfying in the meantime – not just what their “plan” is. A side hustle or part-time job in an unexpected field might be both affirming and motivating. Engage with young job seekers through curiosity and creativity, not interrogation.
This piece draws on clinical observations, published labor market data, and conversations with young adults navigating the current job market. It is written in the spirit of building bridges – between generations, between expectation and reality, and between those who are struggling and those who are positioned to help.