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

first up

Welcome back! This week, we’re talking Gen Z’s latest sustainability moves, the tightening of the global labor force, and how to become famous.

When 26-year-old artist Chappell Roan, one of Gen Z’s newest icons, sings “Hot to Go!” she isn’t talking about the climate. Yet 2024 is shaping up to be one of the (if not the) hottest summers on record.
  
Climate change is a top concern among corporate executives across sectors (including pharmaceutical-ingredients makers, airlines, and dairy producers), who are trying to reduce carbon emissions. Legislative and regulatory efforts around the world to curb climate change, meanwhile, are facing challenges of their own.
 
“Our collective responsibility is to break down this thorny global problem into concrete and actionable steps,” writes McKinsey partner Alexis Trittipo. “That means asking, ‘What is my company or community doing to make itself resilient and hence more capable of thriving in this uncertain and hotter world?’”

Those questions are top of mind for Gen Z. We wrote last year that some Gen Zers are choosing jobs (or choosing to quit their current roles) based on a company’s sustainability policies.  

Since then, some Gen Zers are integrating other sustainable behaviors into their everyday lives. Enter “underconsumption core.” Not to be confused with the economic theory of underconsumption, underconsumption core is a social media trend defined as buying only what one needs and making the most of what one already has.
 
For some consumers, underconsumption core is, at its core, an attempt to be more sustainable. Rather than buying a new shirt, for example, a Z baby might upcycle or transform something they already own. (FWIW, upcycling is just one part of the circular economy; circularity more broadly could bring more than €500 billion in annual revenues to European consumer goods businesses by 2030, for example).
 
But underconsumption core also reflects the fatigue some Gen Zers express over the influencer economy, as well as a practical response to the squeeze some Gen Zers have felt on their wallets. Buying less is less surprising when one has fewer funds at the end of every month. Some Gen Zers are prioritizing price over sustainability in their purchases, write McKinsey senior partner Sajal Kohli and coauthors. But this has more to do with Gen Zers making difficult trade-offs than losing interest in sustainability.
 
Where does this all net out? At net zero, Gen Z hopes. 

VISUALIZE IT

As the global workforce ages, it may become more difficult for companies to fill job vacancies.

WAIT, DON’T SCROLL

The forgotten middle. Middle managers once held stature in an organization. What changed?

Celeb status. In the latest edition of Author Talks, currently exclusive to the McKinsey Insights app, legal scholar and behavioral economist Cass Sunstein discusses his new book, which outlines how to become famous—and describes how much of it is outside one’s control.

Betting the pharma. “Blockbuster” medicines have buoyed pharmaceutical R&D productivity in the past decade. But these medicines alone won’t carry the industry forward.

NOT US; STILL GREAT

Flip-flops are in. No, not the shoe: Gen Zers are reneging on job offers at double the rate of 2021. [Business Insider]

Unplug to reboot. A young writer gained much-needed perspective when she gave up her smartphone. [FT]

CROSSWORD

—Edited by Alexandra Mondalek, editor, New York