Why Gen Z can't catch up

INFLATION: STUDENT LOANS TRIPLE, SALARIES SHRINK, YOUNGEST WORKERS ARE LEFT BEHIND

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Twenty years ago, millennials who were just starting out with adult life thought they had it tough with everything being so expensive.

And now 20 years later, Gen Z is saying the same thing: it is expensive to be an adult.

A new report by The TEFL Academy reveals that the cost of living for young South Africans escalated sharply over the past two decades, contrasting the realities millennial graduates entering the job market in 2005 faced with those of Gen Z graduates in 2025.

The study draws on data from Statistics SA, National Treasury, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey and the Household Affordability Index, using inflation-adjusted benchmarks across housing, transport, education, groceries and debt to paint a generational picture of how graduate affordability and buying power shifted compared to income.

Rhyan O'Sullivan, managing director at The TEFL Academy, says in 2005, millennials graduated into an economy where salaries were broadly aligned with essential costs like housing, transport and education.

“However, 20 years later, Gen Z faces a far harsher reality of youth unemployment at 46% according to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, soaring rents, student debt that tripled and salaries that only increased, but lost around 21% in real terms when adjusted for inflation,” he says.

“This widening gap eroded purchasing power, delayed financial independence and left many Gen Z graduates reliant on family support well into adulthood.”