Student Loan Debt Is More Than A Crisis; It’s An Economic Epidemic

It’s graduation season, and new graduates across the country are getting ready to embark on the next phases of their lives, whether that means more schooling or beginning a career. While this is an exciting time, it also means that many students are graduating with student loan debt.

With college costs on the rise every year, Millennials still have school debt to pay from college and beyond, and Gen Z is accumulating thousands in student loan debt without a way to pay it off. There are approximately 1.7 trillion dollars of student loan debt in the United States alone, and taking entry-level jobs makes it difficult for many new graduates to fulfill student loan obligations. Clearly, student loan debt is more than a crisis; it’s a widespread economic epidemic.

Unfortunately, 73% of Gen Z students will graduate with student loan debt. A survey of Gen Z college students found that 20.1 percent of students are most concerned about paying off student loan debt, while 25.1 percent claim that their biggest fear post-college is trying to find a job in a volatile economy. This combination of high student debt rates and concern about future employment is a deadly but pervasive one. The economy now greatly affects both how students pay for college and how they plan for life after graduation. The current economic climate is enough for most new college graduates to have a breakdown.

Between watching Millennials struggle to pay off student debt and facing the reality of student loans themselves, Gen Z knows that they have to be more practical than ever about post-grad life. Many new college graduates are willing to take jobs that they don’t particularly like in order to pay off their debt, and incoming college students feel pressured to choose “profitable” majors rather than studying what they enjoy most. There’s a high cost to being the most educated generation, and both college students and graduates are paying it in more than just student loan debt.

This undesirable situation begs many questions. Is Gen Z going to shape the future of their educational goals, or will employers have too much influence? Will employers take advantage of Gen Z employees, knowing that they’d likely stay at a job in order to pay off their debt rather than leave without a plan in place? And with the majority of Gen Z students believing they’ll receive job offers soon after leaving college, how will the pressure to take any job that comes their way affect their future careers?

There’s no doubt that Gen Z is taking a different approach to student loan debt than Millennials have, but will they be able to balance paying off loans with finding fulfillment in their careers overall? Millennials still have mountains of student debt, but could Gen Z have it even worse? Unfortunately, only time will tell.