The 14^th edition of Deloitte Global’s Gen Z and Millennial Survey examines the responses of more than 23,000 participants across 44 countries.

Projected to make up 74% of the global workplace by 2030, the survey finds that these generations are seeking a “trifecta” of money, meaning, and well-being while building the technical and soft skills that they believe will prepare them for the workplace of the future. 

Learning and development and the leadership gap

Gen Zs prioritise career growth opportunities and learning when choosing an employer, but few want to reach senior leadership positions.

Both Gen Zs and millennials expect their employers and managers to support learning and development, but there’s a wide gap between their expectations and experiences. Some also have doubts about higher education’s ability to prepare students for the job market:

• Climbing the corporate ladder is not the end goal, but they’re still ambitious: Only 6% of Gen Zs consider reaching a senior leadership position as a primary career goal, but they cite learning and development among the top three reasons they chose their current employer, just behind good work/life balance and opportunities to progress in their careers.
• Gen Zs and millennials want more from their managers on key areas of their development: Roughly half (50% of Gen Zs and 48% of millennials) want their managers to teach and mentor them, but only 36% of Gen Zs and 32% of millennials say this happens.
• These generations are questioning the value of higher education: Around one-quarter expressed concerns about the relevance of the curriculum to the job market, and the practical experience it offers.

The impact of GenAI at work

Gen Zs and millennials are using GenAI more frequently, prioritising training to boost their skills, and seeing improvements in their work quality. However, concerns about GenAI’s impact on the workforce persist:

• GenAI usage is continuing to rise: Three-quarters of Gen Zs (74%) and millennials (77%) believe GenAI will impact the way they work within the next year and more than half of respondents already use GenAI in their day-to-day work, with 29% of Gen Zs and 30% of millennials using it all or most of the time.
• GenAI users have mixed feelings about its impact: GenAI users report that GenAI improves the quality of their work and their work/life balance. But more than six in 10 also worry it will eliminate jobs and say it is motivating them to seek jobs that they perceive as safe from GenAI-driven disruption.
• Soft skills are seen as critical for career advancement: As they work alongside GenAI, more than eight in 10 Gen Zs and millennials say developing soft skills, like empathy and leadership, is even more important for career advancement than honing technical skills.

The pursuit of money, meaning, and well-being

When asked about the factors that impact their career decisions, Gen Zs and millennials gave responses that fell into three categories: money, meaning, and well-being. The survey underscores that these areas are tightly interconnected as respondents seek to find the right balance:

• Financial insecurity is on the rise: Nearly half of Gen Zs (48%) and millennials (46%) say they do not feel financially secure, up from 30% of Gen Zs and 32% of millennials in last year’s survey.
• Purpose influences job satisfaction: Roughly nine in 10 Gen Zs (89%) and millennials (92%) consider a sense of purpose to be important to their job satisfaction and well-being. But purpose at work is subjective. Some Gen Zs and millennials say it’s about having a positive impact on society. Others say their purpose is to earn money, find work/life balance, or to learn new skills so they have the time and resources to drive change outside of working hours.

A New Zealand perspective

This year’s report included 510 respondents in New Zealand – 302 Gen Zs and 208 millennials.

Key findings from the New Zealand snapshot include:

• 30% of Gen Zs and 37% of millennials in New Zealand say they decided not to pursue higher education compared to 31% of Gen Zs and 32% of millennials globally. The top reasons influencing that decision were family/personal circumstances and financial constraints.
• 36% of Gen Zs and 48% of millennials in New Zealand are already using GenAI in their day-to-day work.
• Maintaining a good work/life balance was the top career goal for 21% of Gen Zs and 29% of millennials in New Zealand – this compares with 17% of Gen Zs and 20% of millennials globally.
• The top concerns for Gen Zs in New Zealand were cost of living (54%), mental health of their generation (27%), climate change/protecting the environment (22%), unemployment (19%) and crime/personal safety (17%).
• The top concerns for millennials in New Zealand were cost of living (60%), mental health of their generation (27%), crime/personal safety (20%), healthcare/disease prevention (19%) and income inequality/distribution of wealth (17%).
• 64% of New Zealand Gen Zs said they live paycheck to paycheck, compared to 52% globally, while 56% of New Zealand millennials said the same, compared to 52% globally.
• 47% of Gen Zs and 45% of millennials in New Zealand say they feel stressed or anxious all or most of the time. The top factors contributing to that were their long-term financial future and day to day finances.

Research scope

Deloitte’s 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey reflects the responses of 14,751 Gen Zs (born between 1995 January and 2006 December*) and 8,731 millennials (born between 1983 January and 1994 December). In total, 23,482 respondents were surveyed from 44 countries across North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. The survey was conducted using an online, self-complete-style interview between 25 October and 24 December 2024. The report includes quotes from survey respondents, attributed by generation and gender, who answered open-ended questions, as well as from participants in one-on-one, ethnography style, qualitative interviews conducted separately from the online survey between 19 December 2024 and 10 January 2025.

*Gen Zs are typically defined as being born between January 1995 and December 2010, but this study does not include respondents younger than 18, so each year the definition of Gen Zs in this survey shifts a year to include all adult Gen Zs