Gone are the days when a university degree was a safe bet to employment. In the US, unemployment among degree holders has risen to 5.6% and more than 40% of graduates are working in jobs that don’t require a degree. In Europe, youth unemployment sits at 15.1%. Even the Netherlands has seen it climb to 9.2%, the highest in recent years.

Companies are barely hiring and barely firing. Older workers are staying put. The sectors that used to hoover up graduates — tech, media, consulting — have pulled back. In tech, entry-level hiring at the 15 biggest firms fell 25% between 2023 and 2024.

The office as foreign land

But the struggles don’t end with landing a job — the next challenge is fitting into one. 82% of managers say their Gen Z hires need significantly more soft skills training. And Gen Z seconds that: 65% say they struggle to hold a conversation with colleagues and admit not knowing who to turn to for help. Taking feedback without taking it personally, reading a room, knowing when to push back and when to stay quiet — these are among the most commonly cited challenges.

Sociologists call this secondary socialisation: learning the unwritten rules of institutions you enter as an adult. Previous generations absorbed this naturally — watching colleagues, overhearing conversations, making small mistakes as they go. For Gen Z, that rehearsal stage largely didn’t happen because of the pandemic, as their formative years played out over Zoom. When your reference point for professional communication is a thumbs-up emoji on a Teams message, walking into a corporate environment feels a lot like arriving in a country where everyone speaks a language you’ve only ever practised on Duolingo.

Employers aren’t helping. 38% of hiring managers admit they prefer older candidates over Gen Z. Companies demand workplace fluency but have stripped away the mentoring, the shadowing and the slow learning-by-observing. Call it the osmosis fallacy: expecting new hires to pick up how things work by simply being in the room, while investing less and less in actually showing them.

A cautious generation, not a lazy one

Despite the stereotypes, Gen Z aren’t workshy. 75% of workers plan to stay in their roles through 2027. Facing unprecedented challenges in achieving traditional milestones like homeownership, this generation prioritises stability in a world that feels like it offers very little. In our work we’ve identified the drive for stability, security and clear progression as one of Gen Z’s defining traits.

We’ve explored how this shapes their work ethic and what they expect from employers in the article ‘insides Gen Z work ethic.’

What employers can do

Show how it’s done: spell out how decisions are made, how feedback is given, what’s expected in meetings. 

Invest in proper onboarding: a Slack channel and a welcome email isn’t enough. Structured programmes with mentorship, clear milestones and regular check-ins are needed. And be patient.

Give feedback they can use: be specific about what works, what doesn’t and what to do differently. “You’re doing great” tells someone nothing.

Show them where commitment leads: Transparent progression, internal mobility, honest conversations about growth. The workplace is one of the few institutions left that can offer direction to a generation that’s had to figure out most things alone.