CURATED READS FOR GEN Z—AND THEIR Z-CURIOUS COLLEAGUES

first up

Welcome back! This week, we’re talking about Gen Z’s interest in the healthcare industry, how Gen Z ranks sustainability when making purchases, and why a little face time could be the key to retaining Gen Z employees.

We already know that Gen Zers are interested in health and wellness. Turns out, those interests translate to career aspirations, too. 

Gen Zers in the United States say they are most interested in pursuing a career in medicine and health-related fields (46 percent) compared with any other line of work, according to the results from the latest National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) annual Career Interest Survey. Coming in a distant second to medicine and health-related fields: engineering and science careers (18 percent each).  

It’s not hard to see why Gen Z may be attracted to a career in medicine and health. Because Gen Zers came of age during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, their interest in health-related careers might have grown, the NSHSS report posits. Gen Zers may also be looking for careers that offer some stability in what feels like an unstable world. A third possibility: a career in medicine and health aligns with their own values and purpose. (The NSHSS survey finds that Gen Zers rank healthcare and health-related issues as the impact area they care most about.) What could be more important than improving the quality of people’s lives, after all?

Whatever their reasons, the Gen Zers intrigued by healthcare careers could help ease pressure on the US healthcare system, which faces a shortage of workers across roles. (BTW, the labor challenges facing the US healthcare system are also evident in other parts of the world, including Europe and Central Asia, while Africa faces its own unique set of labor challenges.) 

For Gen Zers interested in pursuing a career in medicine or other fields within healthcare, it’s important to understand the global healthcare sector’s looming challenges and most promising opportunities. Here are five trends in the global healthcare industry that Gen Zers looking to find a job in healthcare will want to follow closely—they just may come in handy during an interview.  

VISUALIZE IT

As Gen Z consumers continue to confront higher prices for goods and services, they are ranking cost over sustainability in their purchase decisions.

WAIT, DON’T SCROLL

A little face time. Regular, 30-minute coaching sessions between manager and team member could be the key to retaining Gen Z employees.

Talking tokens. After a few false starts, tokenized financial assets are finally a thing—and could be worth $2 trillion by 2030.

Exploit–explore. Our brains use a so-called exploit–explore decision-making framework to simplify problems, says this author in the latest edition of Author Talks, currently exclusive to McKinsey Insights app users.

NOT US; STILL GREAT

Broccoli boys. One hairstyle popular with teen boys has been described as “a pile of fluffed curls, with stacked layers for height and a close cut on the sides and in the back,” which looks like broccoli. Meet the “bro perm.” [The Cut]

Bye-bye, buy. “Underconsumption core” is the cousin of the deinfluencing movement. [Fortune]

CROSSWORD

—Edited by Alexandra Mondalek, editor, New York