Briefs Worker Power and Economic Security

Building Wealth for Generation Z: How Policy Can Help New Labor Market Entrants

January 26, 2021

By Suzanne Kahn

Just over a decade after the Great Recession, high unemployment and narrowed job opportunities are again threatening a generation of young labor market entrants. Without significant policy interventions, Gen Z will likely experience the same lasting economic consequences that millennials faced then.

In “Building Wealth for Generation Z: How Policy Can Help New Labor Market Entrants,” Suzanne Kahn—Managing Director of Research and Policy—offers key insights into the fiscal burdens young people experience during recessions, and outlines policies that can combat these economic effects. As Kahn explains, gaps within our social safety net leave young people unprotected during times of economic distress, and outdated policy solutions—namely, increased skills training and student loans—fail to address larger structural inequities within the economy.

By broadening the social safety net to protect new labor market entrants, we can help address both intergenerational and intragenerational wealth inequality.

Tags: Labor, Worker Power

Author

Suzanne Kahn

Vice President, Think Tank

Suzanne Kahn is the vice president of the think tank at Roosevelt, where she oversees and helps manage research projects in all think tank program areas.