The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020: Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit younger generations hard. But the Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020 suggests that millennials and Gen Zs, battle-hardened after multiple crises, remain resilient and determined to better the world.

It’s too early to know how the COVID-19 pandemic will ultimately change society. But the response of millennials and Generation Z, battle-hardened and steadfast in maintaining their values, will be key. The 2020 Deloitte Global Millennial Survey reveals a younger generation whose resilience and determination will surely shape the world that emerges.

The pandemic arrived swiftly and upended pretty much everything, including our survey, which we largely redid between late April and mid-May to reflect respondents’ views both pre-pandemic and during the crisis: We updated our initial fieldwork with a smaller follow-up survey to gauge the pandemic’s impact on opinions.

For the full interactive report, please see The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020: Resilient generations hold the key to building a “better normal.”

The resilient generations

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Pandemic-related shutdowns have hit younger generations hard. More than a quarter of Gen Zs and a quarter of younger millennials (age 25–30) who took our follow-up survey in late April or early May reported that they’d either lost their jobs or been placed on temporary, unpaid leave. At that point, about one in five millennials around the world had been put out of work.

Another 27% of millennials and 23% of Gen Zs reported working fewer hours, while some (millennials 8%, Gen Zs 5%) were working longer hours without a corresponding bump in pay. Only a third of millennials and 38% of Gen Zs taking the pulse survey said their employment/income status had been unaffected by the pandemic.

Last year’s millennial survey exposed a good deal of uneasiness and pessimism; perhaps surprisingly, the pandemic doesn’t appear to have exacerbated those feelings. In 11 of the 13 pulse countries, respondents actually expressed lower levels of stress than they’d reported in our first survey 4 months earlier. Overall results also showed greater optimism about the environment, a strong commitment to financial responsibility and saving, and favorable opinions about the responses to the pandemic by government, business, and respondents’ own employers.

Now, this hardly means young people aren’t concerned about the environment, their families’ well-being, their long-term career and financial outlooks, or a variety of other issues. They are. And improvements in stress levels don’t mean they’re not experiencing uncomfortably high levels of tension. They do. Still, this year’s primary and follow-up surveys, taken together, suggest that millennials and Gen Zs—survivors of unprecedented economic and societal challenges compared to previous generations still in the workforce—are able to roll with the punches.

They are deeply affected by the pandemic but seem able to see opportunity in the darkness, viewing this crisis as an opportunity to reset and drive the change they want to see. Millennials and Gen Zs aren’t just hoping for a better world to emerge after the COVID-19 pandemic releases its grip on society—they want to lead the change.

The pandemic has made Millennials and Gen Zs more empathetic and altruistic

Cautious optimism

The picture that emerges from this year’s survey is complicated but hopeful: Even in the midst of crisis, millennials and Gen Zs are recommitting to improving society, pushing for a world in which businesses and governments mirror their own commitments. Some highlights:

Close to half of Gen Z and 44% of millennial respondents in the first survey said they’re stressed all or most of the time. But in the follow-up survey, anxiety levels fell eight points for both generations, indicating a potential silver lining to the disruption caused by the pandemic.
Half of respondents in the first survey said they believe it’s too late to repair the damage caused by climate change. Yet in our follow-up survey, this figure dropped, suggesting that the pandemic’s environmental impact—reduced economic activity has lowered energy use and therefore pollution—has given hope that there is still time to take action and protect the planet.
The pandemic has engendered an even stronger sense of individual responsibility. Nearly three-fourths said the pandemic has made them more sympathetic toward others’ needs and that they will take actions to have a positive impact on their communities in the future.
Respondents pledged to more actively patronize and support businesses after the pandemic—especially smaller, local sellers. And they won’t hesitate to penalize companies whose stated and practiced values conflict with their own.
A majority of respondents gave businesses and governments high marks for their pandemic responses. Actions taken during the crisis, however, did not translate into overall better opinions of business.
Many are financially prudent and literate. While long-term finances are a top cause of stress, more than half of millennials, and nearly half of Gen Zs, are saving money and could cope if they unexpectedly received a large bill.
Job loyalty rises as businesses address employee needs, from diversity and inclusion to sustainability, reskilling, and more. In the first survey, more millennials said they’d like to stay with their employers for at least 5 years than would prefer to leave within 2 years. This is unprecedented since Deloitte first asked this question in our 2016 survey. It remains to be seen, though, how loyalty will be affected by the pandemic.

Looking ahead

The world that emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic surely will be different—and it will likely be more aligned with the ideals of millennials and Gen Zs, as expressed in this and previous millennial surveys. Young people have seen how quickly the environment can heal, how rapidly business can adapt, and how resourceful and cooperative people can be. They know that a post-pandemic society can be better than the one that preceded it—and they’re tenacious enough to make it a reality.

For the full interactive report, please see The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020: Resilient generations hold the key to building a “better normal.”

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Michele Parmelee
Chief people and purpose officer
Deloitte Global
mparmelee@deloitte.com
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