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They may be at the end of the alphabet, but Gen Z'ers are pretty adept at pushing forward.
What's happening: The economy hasn't been easy for the class of 2020 (and the years around it), but thankfully, it's getting much better.
Those students who graduated from college during the global pandemic, the recession it induced and the topsy-turvy economic environment it left in its wake, have experienced a much faster bounce-back in the labor market and stronger wage growth than any recovery in recent history, according to new research by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
The unemployment rate for recent college grads – workers between the ages of 21 and 24 – has recovered more than 2.5 times faster than in the aftermath of the Great Recession, researchers at the DC-based think tank found.
And recent grads aren't just finding any job, they're finding good jobs.
The underemployment rate for this cohort fully recovered just two years after the onset of the pandemic.
On top of that, the report found, young grads experienced inflation-adjusted wage growth for the first time this early in a recovery in at least three decades.
The labor market for recent college grads is now stronger than it was before the pandemic, which EPI economists Katherine deCourcy and Elise Gould say "was a direct result of an aggressive fiscal policy response to the pandemic's economic shock."
Those who graduated during the 2008-2009 recession, meanwhile, still haven't fully recovered from chronic underemployment.
What it means: Millennials may never fully recoup the lost wages and career setbacks experienced during the Great Recession.
Those who graduated around the 2008 recession earned less money than other graduates for at least 10 to 15 years, according to a study published by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. That lack of earning power has delayed homebuying, marriage and child rearing for so-called recession millennials.
Gen Z doesn't appear to be having that problem. That's likely a good thing for the strength of the consumer economy in the years to come.
Not all is well: The EPI study found that racial and gender wage gaps still remain large among recent grads.
On average, women are still paid $5.30 less per hour than their male counterparts, while Black and Hispanic workers are paid $3.24 and $2.07 less per hour than white workers, the research found.
And as Krystal Hur reported in Sunday's Before the Bell, Gen Z'ers are taking on more debt than their millennial counterparts did at their age.
It also might not last. Employers' hiring projections for the class of 2024 are down 5.8% year-over-year, according to a LinkedIn study released Monday.
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