Axios: Generation V for virus

[Maddox]

The pandemic's economic hit to Gen Z (23 or younger) will be severe, Stef Kight continues:

• Gen Z was looking at graduating into a strong economy and low unemployment. "That's all been turned on its head," Kim Parker, Pew Research Center's director of social trends research, tells Axios.
• Nearly half of workers ages 16-24 held service jobs such as in bars, restaurants and hotels — many of which have now been shut down or greatly scaled back, per Pew. Young workers with less experience can be the first to be let go.
• College students are losing internships, summer work and first jobs vital to build networks and careers. In a College Reaction survey, 91% cited concerns about the economy and job market, and more than half worried about their finances.
• Past generations graduating in a recession saw depressed wages and career growth. Just ask millennials who lived it during the Great Recession.
• "People gradually catch up, but it can take basically the first decade of their career," said Lisa Kahn, an economics professor at the University of Rochester.

The virus may shape Gen Z's views on the government's role in protecting public health and the economy.

• They or their parents could lose employer-provided health insurance in the middle of a pandemic.

What's next: That could fuel youths' already strong support for progressive, social safety net policies such as universal basic income and Medicare for All.

• "Gen Z is now going to be able to say, 'I remember where I was' when they started sending out checks to everybody or when health care suddenly became free in order to get tested," CGK's Dorsey said.

The bottom line: The progressive ideas they've supported are now less hypothetical.

Generation Z now has a defining experience: the coronavirus

"COVID-19 is going to be the 9/11 of the Gen Z generation."

www.axios.com