Gen Z has established a foothold in the workplace, and as these workers become a bigger part of Philadelphia’s workforce, they’re increasingly shaping the economy.
So what do Philadelphia’s Gen Zers think is a good job?
The perhaps unsurprising answer: one that allows advancement opportunities, high pay, and employer-funded healthcare benefits, as well as work-life balance and boundaries. That’s the finding of a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts.
And for some Gen Zers Pew heard from, pursuing a job in their field means looking beyond Philadelphia. Outside of healthcare, and some opportunities in law and engineering, they say, other desirable industries don’t seem to be hiring much here.
“Understanding their attitudes, their perspectives about work, about what a workplace should be, what their feelings are about work-life balance” is important, said Thomas Ginsberg, author of the report on Gen Z workplace attitudes.
Released Wednesday, the report is based on focus group discussions that took place last year with 54 Philadelphians aged 18 to 29.
They’re skeptical about what’s learned in college and want to build up more hard skills And they see work as a key to living well, not as the reason to live.
“They’re not at all reticent about working hard,” Ginsberg said. “What they’re doing is questioning what’s the ultimate goal of ‘work hard.’ It’s to have an affordable personal life, in their view.”
But participants in the survey expressed that “jobs today often don’t deliver that,” he said.
“You work hard and you still can’t buy a house,” Ginsberg said. “Those two things are coming together pretty starkly for this group.”
Gen Zers looking outside Philly for good, flexible jobs
Gen Z Philadelphians want flexible work hours and perhaps the freedom to go to the dentist without requesting time off from work.
They want boundaries when they’re off the clock, so they can maintain hobbies and relationships. But they also want some in-office time to learn from colleagues.
“I don’t live to work. I work to live. So there needs to be that distinction between the two,” one participant said.
Much of Philadelphia’s Gen Z population works in healthcare, social assistance, and education services, reflecting the city’s eds and meds focused economy.
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Survey participants interested in healthcare jobs said there were plenty to go around. Others looking outside that field said there aren’t enough good job opportunities.
In particular, they said, jobs in tech, finance, and the arts seem more scarce. They said New York and Washington, D.C., seem to have more opportunities in those fields.
And while cost of living and housing seems lower in Philadelphia than in other East Coast cities, jobs here generally pay less, they say.
Still, they like much of what the city offers for non-work hours, from the social life to the sports, arts, and transportation. SEPTA, PATCO, and NJ Transit attracted some Gen Zers to the area in the first place, the report said.
College builds contacts, not skills, Gen Z says
A little over half of Philadelphia residents between the ages of 25 and 29 had a bachelor’s degree between 2020 and 2024 — a higher share than residents older than them. But Pew found this age group has reservations about whether college provides what they need for career advancement.
“This age group is the highest-educated age group that we can measure … and even so, they’re only marginally positive about the value of college education,” Ginsberg said.
College-educated Philadelphians surveyed said their higher education was valuable for building a professional network, Ginsberg said, but not as much for hard skills. They said they want more training in skills like coding, data analytics, AI, and industry-specific software. Some said they know they will need a graduate degree to advance.
Those without a degree felt they could get those hard skills without college, said Ginsberg, pointing to the availability of specialized programs and microcredentials.
Still, those without an undergraduate degree said that they felt like employers favored potential hires who had gone to college and that they could have benefited from learning soft skills such as public speaking, networking, and interviewing in a college setting.
Gen Z doubts the value of retirement benefits
Ginsberg noted that the Gen Z respondents expressed skepticism about financial institutions and retirement, which he wasn’t expecting. Some said they had purposely forgone their employer’s 401(k) plan or couldn’t afford to set money aside to retire. Some said they felt more confident investing money on their own.
“Gen Z has lived through two economic shocks in this country,” Ginsberg said. They’re also facing record levels of college debt, and high inflation.
“They’re translating that, to some degree, into questioning whether the institutions of our economy actually are doing right by them.”
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