Gen Z workers aren't feeling great. What's the problem?

Fewer than one in three Gen Z workers with full-time jobs feel holistically healthy — from a social, mental, physical and financial standpoint — a figure that's 10% lower than their older colleagues. 

That’s according to a survey by MetLife, scheduled to be released in March. The insurance and employee benefit company surveyed 2,964 full-time workers aged 21 and older for its 2025 Employee Benefit Trends. 

The annual survey’s findings are partially framed as demonstrating what kinds of benefits employers can offer — like health insurance, student debt assistance, paid leave and childcare — to most acutely benefit their employees, and how educating employees on these benefits can boost their wellbeing. One finding, for instance, shows that when Gen Z employees clearly understand their workplace benefits, they’re 3.2 times "more holistically healthy."

A closer look at the survey shows results beyond the workplace, suggesting that solutions to Gen Z’s mental health crisis likely exist both in and outside work environments. Questions were framed not solely about their mental health in the workplace; instead, the employees were asked to rank their overall sense of well-being across four spectrums: financial health, social health, mental health and physical health. 

"How healthy do you feel when it comes to the following aspects of your life?" the survey asked respondents, and found that 46% of Gen Z workers surveyed felt stressed, compared to 35% of other groups. When asked about depression, burnout and isolation, Gen Z reported heightened feelings across the board: 35% of Gen Zers vs. 20% of other demographic groups reported experiencing depression, while 44% of Gen Z vs. 34% of other demographics said they’re experiencing burnout. Thirty percent of Gen Z respondents said they were experiencing isolation, compared to 22% of respondents in other age groups.  

Traumatic events contribute to stress

Gen Z includes people born between 1997 and 2012. MetLife notes a span of traumatic events they have lived through as likely contributing to their higher reports of mental distress. 

"Given what Gen Z has experienced in their lifetimes — beginning their careers during a global pandemic, growing up with social media, living with climate anxiety — their struggles are understandable, particularly with mental and social health," the report reads.

"HR and business leaders can adjust multiple levers within their employee care models and the overall employee experience in support of Gen Z. Social and supportive cultures are particularly important," the report reads.

Workplace improvements can have a meaningful impact on widespread mental health — as our bleary eyes can remind us, American workers spend more time working than we do with our families, sleeping, or enjoying any hobbies or activities.

Still, the insights on Gen Z’s mental health in the MetLife survey have been demonstrated for years, and likely have root causes outside of workplace benefits. Gen Z has been called "the loneliest generation" and struggles with higher rates of anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts. In 2023, The White House said the U.S. was experiencing "an unprecedented youth mental health crisis," and that it had invested $4 billion in funding for mental health care and substance use services. That year, a report from the American Psychological Association found that Gen Z and younger millennials were “completely overwhelmed by stress,” particularly suffering from financial stress and isolation.  

Members of Gen Z are more likely than other age groups to be diagnosed with a mental health condition, in part because of their relative openness to therapy and psychiatric care. 

There’s no shortage of possible explanations for Gen Z’s declining mental health, to say nothing of social media’s profound impact on it. Gen Z also has grown up in a time of gun violence, rising costs of living, a widening wage divide and once-in-a-lifetime weather events. In an American Psychological Association survey of members of Gen Z ages 15 to 21, 75% of respondents cited mass shootings as a "significant" source of stress. 

And in a survey of 16,000 younger Gen Z members conducted by The Lancet, a medical journal, 85% of respondents reported being significantly worried about climate change. 

"Very few people who are talking about the mental health crisis of young people are saying, 'Maybe there's something to do with the climate crisis, maybe there's something to do with the feeling of huge amounts of uncertainty that they face in their adult lives,'" researcher Sarah Jaquette Ray said on a recent episode of NPR’s Hidden Brain podcast.  

The ever-increasing costs of everyday goods keeps members of Gen Z stressed — 67% of 18- to 34-year-old told the American Psychological Association they felt "consumed" by financial anxiety, compared to 13% of those 65 and older. That’s an anxiety shouldered by most generations: Nearly one in three Americans are "just getting by financially," and costs of "day to day expenses" were among the top financial stressors for 61% of U.S. adults in 2023. 

"Our research indicates that there is a particularly strong link between mental health and financial health — in other words, when employees feel financially unhealthy, this significantly impacts their mental wellbeing in stride," Todd Katz, head of U.S. group benefits at MetLife, told Salon.

Gen Z might put more pressure on itself than older coworkers. A survey conducted by Empower found that Gen Zers define financial success as earning an annual salary of $587,797 and possessing $9.47 million in assets — nearly twice as much as the salaries other generations consider financially successful.

Gen Z also struggles with money dysmorphia — an unrealistic and distorted view of finances. Credit Karma found that around 43% of Gen Zers feel behind financially even though they have above-average savings. Therapists attribute this to societal pressures and generational teachings about money, as well as social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram that are flooded with influencers of the same age flaunting luxury purchases and exotic trips.

Work-life balance could help

At least one workplace benefit could stand to materially benefit Gen Zers: better work-life balance. According to a report on Gen Z’s happiness by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation, the "strongest predictor" of Gen Z's happiness is "whether an individual reports having enough time during the week to sleep and relax."

"These elements are even more influential in Gen Z’s happiness than physical or financial security," the report states. The Washington Post noted in 2024 that members of Gen Z have been "disproportionately pummeled by rising prices, higher housing costs, larger student loan balances and more overall debt" compared to millennials, with Gen Zers having to spend more on basic necessities than millennials did at their age. 

While a 40-hour workweek will no doubt remain for the foreseeable future, some Gen Z workers who can control how many hours they actually spend working — a graphic designer who works remotely, versus a bartender or tour guide — appear to be gradually chipping away at the number of hours devoted each week to working. 

A survey conducted by Fiverr, a freelance job marketplace, found that Gen Z is working slightly less than their peers, with Gen Z workers saying they’re productive 29 hours per 40-hour workweek, compared to 31 hours of weekly productivity reported by the average U.S. worker. To some younger workers, working fewer hours at their full-time jobs is a fitting response to stagnating wage growth, and how much less the money earned at work translates to real-world benefits.

Between 1979 and 2019, wages for the lowest tenth percentile of earners rose just 3% after inflation. And from 1979 to 2020, U.S. workers’ productivity went up 61.8% while wages grew by 17.5%.

One TikTok user put it like this in a recent video: "We need to stop expecting the same damn people who bought a four-bedroom home, and a brand new Cadillac convertible off of a $30,000 a year salary, to understand what it’s like to be working 40-plus hours a week with a master’s degree and still not being able to afford a 400-square-foot studio apartment in [expletive] Iowa." 

The sentiment seemed to resonate, as the post has been viewed more than 2 million times.