When the opportunity arises to help others and make a positive impact, Gen Z says “yes.”
New research has revealed that the vast majority of young people want to help others through work, and that these caring jobs can contribute to their overall mental well-being.
Nearly 80% of Gen Z in the United States said they are interested in according to a poll released Wednesday by Gallup, in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation and Harvard University’s Making Caring Common project.
“At a time when loneliness and are an issue for Gen Z, this data shows they want to help people and are struggling to find meaning and purpose in life,” said Katherine Senseman, research consultant at Gallup.
The Gallup Voices of Gen Z study highlights a correlation between two aspects of life. Of those who agreed to make a positive impact on other people’s lives, 89% completely or partially agreed that they felt their lives had meaning.
“Helping others is good for our mental health, and many young Gen Zers feel a lack of meaning and purpose, which really isn’t good for their mental health,” said Richard Weissbourd, director of the Making Caring Common project and senior lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “They are finding meaning and purpose in helping others.”
This data helped researchers gain a better understanding of how purpose manifests itself in people’s lives and how it may be linked to the intention to do things for others, said Anthony Burrow, an associate professor of psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who was not involved in the research.
However, Gen Z also cited reasons for not finding this meaning.
As digital natives, members of Gen Z are aware of their dependence on screens, with more than half citing unproductive technology use as a significant barrier to developing a purposeful life. Almost half acknowledged having mental health problems and 34% felt that a lack of personal relationships was a contributing factor to their feeling of a lack of purpose.
While care-oriented jobs can lead to overcoming some of these barriers, the jobs themselves present some concerns.
Nearly half of Gen Z cited concerns about their finances and personal well-being as factors discouraging them from seeking jobs focused on helping others. Young people did not feel that these types of jobs paid enough and felt that the roles were often more emotionally draining than others.
Half of those surveyed cited a job that paid enough without being too stressful as what they wanted most in their careers; therefore, low-paying, high-stress care work conflicted with their priorities.
Plus, the pressure of simply finding meaning in life can be overwhelming. More than half of Gen Z adults agreed that the pressure they felt to succeed in life stressed them out, with especially high agreement among younger adults ages 19 to 21.
Weissbourd noted that the pressure to achieve and the pressure to find meaning in life go hand in hand.
“Partly it’s the amount of pressure to achieve results, but also why you’re achieving something,” Weissbourd said. “If you have a purpose for it, you are likely to have better mental health.”
Gallup and its partners conducted the survey in December 2025 and interviewed 2,436 young people, ages 13 to 28, living in the United States.
When asked if they would take a higher paying job over a more meaningful job, almost half of Gen Z said yes. But if money was no object and they were already living on a comfortable salary, most young people said they would keep their current job.
More than half of Gen Z said doing personally rewarding work was among their top three priorities, and 25% also ranked helping and caring for others as a priority.
“This is a story of opportunity,” Burrow said. “When the opportunity arises to do something with purpose or meaning, this generation generally says, ‘I want to do that.’”
He encouraged hiring managers, educators and older generations to consider this information as a way to adjust their views on the younger generation.
This could also include recruiters who add information to job openings about community outreach a company does, or school administrators who create programs that explore aspects of careers that give students a sense of purpose.
“These barriers become opportunities for organizations, companies, or even schools to do the preparatory work, to discuss how experiences, tasks, and workflows can actually support and sustain something like a life purpose,” Burrow said.
