The top three issues of greatest concern of the Romanian Millennials and Generation Z youngsters are the education and development of personal and professional skills (37% of Millennials and 38% of Gen Zs), the level of corruption in business and politics (35% and 30%, respectively) and climate change and environmental protection (29% and 27%, respectively), according to Deloitte Global Millennial and Gen Z Survey 2021, conducted in 45 countries around the world, including Romania. They differ to a great extent from the global results, according to which the Millennials’ greatest concerns are related to health care and disease prevention (28%), unemployment (27%) and climate change and environmental protection (26%), while Generation Zs put the climate change first (26%), followed by unemployment (25%) and health care.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created uncertainty about the financial future of the two generations, considering that 44% of Romanian Millennials feel anxious or stressed most of the time, slightly above the global average of 41%. In the case of Generation Zs, 51% of respondents in Romania say they are almost permanently stressed, compared to the global average of 46%.
The most important stress factors are felt more intensely by Romanian compared to the global average, the study shows. Thus, for Millennials, the main sources of stress are the long-term financial future (61% in Romania vs. 46% globally), family welfare (57% of Romanians vs. 46% globally), work and career prospects (56% vs. 41%), physical and mental health (51% vs. 33%). For Gen Zs, the main stress factor is the welfare of the family (66% in Romania vs. 47% globally), followed by career prospects (62% vs. 50%), long-term financial future (58% vs. 48%) and physical and mental health (48% vs. 35%).
“The concerns of Millennials and Gen Zs have slightly changed in the context of the pandemic, both in Romania and globally. However, Romanians remain anchored in the aspects related to their financial situation and, implicitly, to their career, compared to the global average, which is dominated by the concern for climate change, at least in the case of Generation Zs. I think it is a positive aspect that young Romanians are interested in education and in developing their personal and professional skills, but it is rather a cause for concern that most of them do not consider adequate the current level of access to these resources essential not only for their individual success, but also for our progress as a society,” said Alexandru Reff, Country Managing Partner, Deloitte Romania and Moldova.
According to the study, in our country, 80% of Millennials and 88% of Generation Zs say that the pandemic has inspired them to take action to improve their own lives (compared to 71% and 70%, respectively, globally) and the impact on their community (68% of them Millennials, 78% of Generation Z). Globally, the percentages are much lower, by almost 20 percentage points in the case of Gen Zs. In the context of the pandemic, 84% of young Romanians from both generations say they have complied with the public health guidelines (more than ten percentage points above the global average).
The survey was conducted on over 14,500 Millennials (born between January 1983 and December 1994) and 8,500 Generation Zs (born between January 1995 and December 2003) in 45 countries worldwide. Among the interviewees there are both employees with executive positions in large organizations and people hired on a project basis (Gig), volunteers or unemployed, graduates of secondary and university education, but also people who have not graduated from these forms of education (especially in the case of Generation Zs).