[Music] in hustling and bustling Hong Kong some generation Zed or gen Zs are shunning full-time jobs gen probably expect remote work and flexi hours what will be the impact should this Trend continue and what will it take to get gen Zed back to work it's rush hour in the financial Hub of Hong Kong the streets are swarming with people heading to work but not Alex Alex belongs to generation Zed or gen Zed those born between 1997 in 2012 the 22-year-old is a part of a growing group of work weary youths young adults while putting off looking for a job or training he traces his current indolence to his family circumstances [Music] foree in Hong Kong there are many others like Alex in a 2024 survey conducted by the Hong Kong Government after youths who are not studying or working 36% have no intention of finding a job in other parts of China this phenomenon of assuring hard work resonated with youths as they grapple with uncertain Futures and high societal expectations the phenomenon was called taning or lying [Music] flat the T mindset has taken root in Hong Kong as well in a 2024 survey by the Hong Kong young women's Association nearly half of the city's secondary students were pulled planned to lie flat for covid-19 made these circumstances worse for young people studies showed that the pandemic affected the youth most adversely it broke social connections drop blossers were heaviest amongst the youngest most inexperienced workers yeah [Music] [Music] for [Music] for for for mental health is a top concern for Gen Zeds a 2024 survey of genz and Millennium workers by investment service in DS found that 30% of Hong Kong respondents would like their workplace to offer mental Wellness Workshops the focus on Mental Health at work is not the only thing that sets genets apart from previous generations [Music] full for [Music] over 40% of Genet workers often think about leaving their jobs some in search of better engagement for Ken he currently gets by through the odd freelance jobs one reason why young adults like Ken can afford to be leisurely about the career is Hong Kong's affluence instead more young Hong Kong adults are now dependent on their families and the majority live with their parents in mainland China this has given rise to a phenomenon known as full-time children young adults who live at home and do chores in exchange for an allowance Ken too is currently living with his mom and [Music] dad the circumstances for Alex however are different a couple of days a month Alex works at a warehouse moving Goods but the work isn't guaranteed [Music] on the rare occasions he's needed at the warehouse Alex makes just $40 a day even so Alex isn't in any rush to look for a more permanent or lucrative position with generation Zs having different expectations of work there's increasing friction between hiring managers and this group of workers even as Hong Kong's economy remains sluggish 24y old aah is a recent graduate in Communications navigating the job market hasn't been easy [Music] Hong Kong's post pandemic recovery has been sluggish GDP growth in 2023 was 3. 2% falling short of projections last year's GDP growth is expected to be about 2. 5% revised down from previous estimates of 2.
5 to 3. 5% Hong Kong is uh undergoing um a period of the changes in the economic uh structure and of course uh some of which may be because of geopolitics that um Hong Kong may actually face more challenges in terms of the uh financing activities uh right now in the city the Drmay come from externally maybe from the West in terms of whether they want to add as much new capital to Hong Kong versus the past it also comes from the um economic policy in mainland China because of the uh ongoing structural deceleration then of course uh will also have affect Hong Kong given the very close economic relation small and medium Enterprises ormes are especially hard hit High interest rates a property slump in the city and the mainland as well as an exodus of investors and patrons have left businesses fighting to balance the books smmes make up 98% of Hong Kong's economy and employ almost half its Workforce however these smaller companies may not be enticing to Young workers a few months ago adaah landed a full-time role in a small company full [Music] [Laughter] despite the gloomy job market young workers do not feel particularly married to their work four in 10 genets and Millennials in Hong Kong have considered resigning a 2023 study by Career Builder found that compared to other Generations genets are only committed to their jobs for an average of 2 years and 3 months [Music] jansy constantly needs stimulation and learning new things they love challenges right and sometimes um they they feel that you know they've actually uh learned a lot already very quickly in a job and then they just want to seek more challenges so they thought um moving on to a next job it's a fast track on Learning and Development here is another mismatch between young workers and the job market while many gen zets are comfortable job hopping some HR managers see this as a red flag you know traditionally we don't really want job Hoppers and a lot of the leaders would want to avoid them because they're going to be seen as like um high cost for companies because you train them and then they leave right um but I guess you know again we have to dig deeper on why they want to leave so soon have you done enough to make them want to stay with you unlike previous generations salary means less to gen Zeds instead across multiple surveys gen zets Place more value on things like work life balance development opportunities and a sense of purpose a survey of 10,000 Genet professionals by end. a job search and networking platform found that 80% favored mentorship and a clear career growth path over salary I think JY actually wants specific um you know a career plan for them like you know specific what you're going to do in 6 months 12 months months 18 months 24 months so that they know what to expect right um that's one thing another thing that really um popular amongst them is mentorship and I think the third part is probably on Wellness because we've got like burnout with Co so there's like um you know how you going to take care of your mental health so you know coming up with well-being initiative is getting more and more popular and probably makx companies stand out from the others as well but can young workers in Hong Kong afford to be too picky after all they face stiff competition from the mainland since 2023 the Hong Kong government has relaxed visa rules allowing more Mainland Chinese to live and work on the island basically it's easier for them to uh stay in the city uh especially after the study here so for example in 2023 um we do see an up search of the application of the uh soal I Visa which basically allow foreign students to stay in Hong Kong and work after the study to shoot up all the way to more than uh 20,000 so this is uh around 3% of the age group in Hong Kong between 15 to 24 basically it means more compet competition within uh shanking or if not shanking at least the um non- growing number of jobs if um such students if they want to stay in Hong Kong then I think it would be uh fair to assume that uh some of which may be willing to work harder to uh basically compete for the uh same jobs the mainlanders um they have a relatively good um education background a lot of them have Stam background prestigious University from overseas um they speak three languages so you know English Mandarin and increasingly Cantonese um they're they're very attracted to come to Hong Kong because Hong Kong is their stepping stone into um you know the the global Arena and um more importantly I think they could be more receptive to the traditional way of working like you know probably the long hours the expectations from leaders um on the traditional way of working [Music] instead some Hong Kong yous are issuing full-time work for part time jobs but this could change the economic dynamics of the city [Music] [Music] engineer course fre the idea of a full-time 9 to5 job has less appeal among the young a significant portion of gen Zed are embracing freelance work with 52% of genz professionals engaging in freelance activities among these more than half are freelancing fulltime as for Joyce she isn't just a makeup artist she holds multiple part-time [Music] [Music] jobs holding down multiple jobs has caught on with young Hong kongers they are known as slashers this refers to the slashers that turn up in their job description in a 2022 survey by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth groups nearly 4 fifths of the people pulled agreed that an individual could have multiple jobs at the same time [Music] but being in the slasher economy comes with risks forer the preference for freelance work despite these drawbacks points to another characteristic of gen zets they are less inclined to consider long-term financial goals preferring short-term gratification [Music] one explanation for this is the fast-paced environment in which genets grew up well I think Jen Z has this attitude of work smart not hard so um you know because they actually find shortcuts through technology they value time you know cuz life is too short for them and they know exactly what they want and isn't that a smart approach right they know what they want and they ask for it and they don't want to waste anybody's time as well but in Hong Kong in particular there could be something else behind this Outlook long-term goals like housing can feel Out Of Reach in a 2024 survey conducted by HSBC on gen Zed 60% of participants view home ownership as unattainable and it's no wonder Hong Kong is among the world's most expensive property markets the average home price is $1.
