Singaporean millennials are the most concerned about climate change and protecting the environment, with 32% of them indicating so. And while economic growth is a key concern, it is second place with 26% indicating so. Unemployment, meanwhile, is ranked third, or 25%, in the list, according to a survey done by Deloitte.
While for Singaporean Gen Zs, the top three issues were economic growth(30%), unemployment (29%) and healthcare/ disease prevention(25%), according to the same survey, which was part of a worldwide study done by Deloitte.
Marking the report’s 10th anniversary, Deloitte Global surveyed nearly 23,000 millennial and Gen Z respondents from 45 countries which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Within Singapore, there were a total of 308 respondents comprising 203 millennials and 105 Gen Zs.
According to Deloitte, climate change and protecting the environment was also the top concern of millennials a year ago. “Their continued focus on environmental issues .. even during a global pandemic, when other threats to their health, family welfare, and careers may feel more imminent—demonstrates how important this issue is for younger generations,” notes Delotte.
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Citing findings from the survey, 37% of millennials and 40% of Gen Zs will commit to take action on environmental and climate issues after the pandemic. Such actions could include anything from recycling more to increasing use of public transportation, to changing their eating and shopping habits.
As consumers, millennials and Gen Zs continue to make decisions aligned with their values, with more than a quarter of respondents say businesses’ impact (both positive and negative) on the environment has influenced their buying decisions.
However, approximately 60% of millennials and Gen Zs fear business’ commitment to helping combat climate change will be less of a priority as business leaders reckon with challenges brought on by the pandemic.
Other concerns
With regards to work, both Singaporean millennials (51%) and Gen Zs (55%) believe that flexibility and adaptability are most critical to the success of an organisation.
Interestingly, Singaporean Gen Zs seem to place a higher importance on empathy, at 32%, as compared to millennials at 18%.
With ethics playing a larger role in their lives, 42% of millennials have made choices of the types of work they would do and the organizations they are willing to work for based on their personal beliefs and ethics over the past 2 years, while 37% of Gen Zs have done so.
However, their views on business’ social impact continues to decline, less than half of millennials (45%) and Gen Zs (40%) in Singapore think business is having a positive impact on society.
For work-related stress during the covid-19 pandemic, 38% of Singaporean millennials and 24% of Singapore Gen Zs had felt that their employer had taken actions to support their mental well-being.
In terms of economic and political outlook, it seems that Singaporean Gen Zs are increasingly positive, with 43% of those polled believing that the overall economic situation will improve over the next 12 months, as compared to 27% in 2020.
With Singapore millennials, those who believed that the overall economic situation would improve increased from 28% in 2020 to 29% from 29%, but 36% felt that the economic situation would stay the same as compared to 33% the previous year.
In both age categories, Singaporeans seem to be more positive than global counterparts where 43% of global millennials and 41% of global Gen Zs felt that the overall economic situation would worsen in 2021.
Singaporean millennials have scored a point lower (32) on the Millz Mood Index compared to last year (33) and 2 points than their global counterparts (34). On the other hand, Singaporean Gen Z has scored 7 points higher (39) as compared to the previous year (32) and is 3 points higher than global Gen Zs (36).
