BY DYLAN VOCHATZER

As a student, preparing for the future can seem exciting, but at the same time seem extremely overwhelming. Being financially stable and moving out of high school into your adult years is one of the most important things that students need to focus on, and it definitely isn’t easy for teenagers to do. Financial angst amongst teenagers exploring jobs and leaving high school is at an all time high right now, for a variety of reasons including inflation, causing both grocery prices and home prices to skyrocket. Many teenagers say ‘they can’t afford to live.’ 

Gen Z are entering adulthood during one of the strongest job markets in US history. Older people look at this and say that they should take advantage of it, because older generations haven’t had the luxury of experiencing such good job markets. For the younger people, it isn’t something they can just take advantage of though. With how many struggles they are experiencing, specifically the crazy inflation prices, it holds them back from being able to find work. Jobs may work them to the bone for minimum wage, maybe even a job that they don’t necessarily enjoy. The essential things for them, like food, have massively increased in price since 2020’s pandemic. What’s scarier for them is the housing prices. The housing part of the economy has experienced the least amount of progress when halting inflation prices, and dealing with inflation is easier when you own a home. This goes for rent too; students don’t have too much money when they get out of high school, so sticking to rented apartments and homes is easier for them. But, clearly, Gen Z isn’t able to do that either, with how the housing and rent prices are currently. They’re stuck.

Young workers start off their jobs already with a disadvantage with an entry level wage, but overtime the wages go up. When you’re young and haven’t even started working yet, this sounds like a good thing, but this increase in wages vision provides little comfort. Another big factor contributing to this stress was the pandemic. We had school years taken away from us due to the pandemic, and it is difficult even now, 4 years after the pandemic, for people to get over it, especially when moving into adulthood. Gen Z weren’t able to experience important things in their school lives, and were forced into isolation, and then immediately thrown back into the world. They gained heavy anxiety, and for the majority, that anxiety hasn’t gone away. 

Although it is scary, it is possible to get over this financial angst. People in their 40s and 50s have experienced similar things to this, and we can learn from those experiences and push past the stress. Around the 1980s, inflation rates went up by a drastic 12%. Even further back, in the 1940s, rates went up by nearly 18%. These rates haven’t just stuck around at such high numbers, they’ve actually gone down since 1980, but because of the pandemic they’ve gone right back up to around 7%. The good thing is that 7% is a lot better than 12 or 18%. Inflation can’t be stopped, but it is possible to stop the inflation prices from increasing, and  with those prices leveled out, Gen Z will be able to catch up.