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What is it really like to be a young person navigating a career in 2026? What influences the decisions students make, and when? What are they worried about, and what kind of support actually makes a difference?
These are the questions at the heart of the Amberjack and SpringPod Gen Z Careers Report 2026, now in its third year. This year, 1,277 students responded across a broad range of ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, and social circumstances, giving us one of the richest data sets we have produced to date. The youngest respondents were 13. The majority fell within the 16-18 age bracket. One in three came from a free school meal background, and one in twelve identified as a young carer.
What the data tells us, and what the students who joined us to discuss it confirmed, is that the landscape for early careers is more complex, more pressured, and more consequential than it has perhaps ever been. This blog sets out the four key themes from this year’s report, with direct insights from the student panel who brought the data to life.
Theme 1: Students Are Thinking About Careers Earlier Than You Think
One of the most striking findings in this year’s report is how early career thinking begins. Over 86% of students had seriously thought about their careers by age 16, and the most common response was that this thinking had begun before age 13.
This challenges a common assumption in careers education: that substantive careers support can be left until the key transition points of Year 10, sixth form, or university. The data suggests that students are forming ideas, aspirations, and, crucially, assumptions about careers long before those moments arrive. The window for shaping how they think about the world of work is far wider than most employers or schools have historically treated it.
At the same time, early thinking does not translate into active exploration. Almost half of students spend less than an hour, or no time at all, per week actively researching career options. The gap between thinking about the future and knowing how to navigate it is a significant one.
Ava, who joined our panel having just completed her A-levels ahead of studying English at King’s College London, describes first thinking seriously about her career at age 11 or 12 after an English lesson sparked an interest in writing. But when she tried to explore that interest further, she struggled to find anything to hold onto. “Back then I didn’t really find much information about careers online,” she told us. “I couldn’t really find many different opportunities or things like that.”
Abdul, a Year 12 student aiming for a career in finance, made the point that the conversations about careers in schools often start early enough, but the content of those conversations is the problem. “Careers conversations need to consist of more than just ‘have you thought about your career’; they need to point young students in the direction of how to research and how to actually get down that career path.”
The implication for employers is clear: there is a genuine opportunity to engage earlier, and schools are actively looking for that employer presence. Jo Bishop, CEO of SpringPod, who co-authored the report, notes a shift in what best practice looks like: “Where a careers day might have been a one-off event, it’s now becoming a more structured programme with lots of different employer encounters over a period of time. Progressive rather than just a one-off event.”
Theme 2: The Confidence Gap Is Widening
Nearly 70% of students told us that thinking about careers causes some level of stress. This is a finding that has been consistent across all three years of the report, and it shows no sign of shifting.
What is particularly striking in the 2026 data is the direction of travel as students get older. Rather than gaining clarity and confidence as they move through school and into higher education, stress levels increase significantly with age. Only 18% of students say they feel confident in their chosen career path. As the decision points get closer (university applications, A-level choices, graduate recruitment cycles), the pressure intensifies rather than eases.
There are several reinforcing factors. The volume of negative headlines about the graduate job market creates an impression of scarcity that does not always reflect the reality. Exam pressure, peer comparison, and family expectations all pile in. And for students pursuing careers in competitive or uncertain sectors, the creative industries, the arts, or roles being reshaped by AI, the gap between ambition and financial security can feel almost impossible to bridge.
Ava, who is heading into English at university, articulated this with real precision: “The stress and pressure definitely outweigh the excitement. As you get older, it gets more real, there’s more weighting to it, and it feels like there’s more that could go wrong. It feels like such a pivotal stage that you need to make all the right decisions.”
Joanne, a second-year pharmacy student at the University of Nottingham, offered a powerful example of what genuine confidence-building looks like: in-person work experience. Having used online platforms to explore different healthcare careers, she then secured a hospital placement that allowed her to observe multiple roles simultaneously. “Being in that environment and being able to observe the day-to-day tasks of multiple different healthcare careers at the same time really helped me to see the unfiltered day-to-day realities. It made me more confident in my decision to do pharmacy.” Crucially, she chose the career first, and the degree became the route to get there.
For employers, the message is that practical, immersive experience does what no amount of general information can: it gives students something real to hold onto, and it converts abstract interest into informed commitment. The confidence gap is not primarily an information problem. It is an experience problem.
Theme 3: Financial Reality Is Now Central to Career Decision-Making
The cost of living crisis is not a backdrop to Gen Z’s career decisions; it is at the centre of them. Around two-thirds of students in this year’s report said that the cost of living is actively influencing their career choices, and salary is now the number one deciding factor for almost half of all respondents.
This is not simply about students being motivated by money. It reflects a generation making genuinely difficult practical decisions under real financial pressure. Research from the Work Foundation at Lancaster University found that 96% of young people aged 16 to 29 now cite the cost of living as an important issue, the highest proportion recorded. Against that backdrop, career decisions become entangled with questions of housing, location, financial stability, and whether a chosen path is viable at all.
Joanne captures this with uncomfortable clarity. As a pharmacy student weighing up her foundation year placement options, she finds herself considering geography not on the basis of career opportunity but on affordability. “I start to find myself considering, is it really worth doing my placement in London, or maybe just going somewhere further north where the cost of living isn’t as harsh. It’s a bit disheartening, but it’s just a reality of the world we live in at the moment.”
Ava, who is drawn to the creative industries, describes the weight of knowing her passion sits in a sector that is financially unpredictable. “I’m trying to find a balance between something I’m passionate about and something that realistically I can support myself with, especially in modern times. Maybe a job in the day and then writing in my spare time until I can get on my feet financially.”
This creates a direct challenge for employers. Transparency about salary, salary progression, and realistic earning potential at different points in a career is not just good practice; it is what this generation of students is actively asking for. Jo puts it directly: “My heart does sink when I see ‘competitive salary’ on a job description, or worse, on an apprenticeship.” The candidates reading those descriptions have real numbers in mind, real costs to cover, and real decisions to make.
Salary transparency is improving, but there is further to go, particularly around the full range of pathways available and what they lead to. Degree apprenticeships are increasingly seen as the gold standard route, but there are thousands of other apprenticeship and early careers opportunities that offer strong progression and earning potential, and these remain significantly underrepresented in the information landscape that students are navigating.
Theme 4: Students Want Practical Guidance, Not More Information
The final theme in this year’s report is perhaps the most actionable for employers and careers services. Students are not asking for more information. Over 80% want realistic careers advice, and nearly 70% want clear, step-by-step guidance on how to reach the career they are interested in.
The distinction matters. The information about careers exists. Students can and do find it. What they consistently say they are missing is structure, honesty, and practical guidance, and the opportunity to actually do something, not just read about it.
Abdul makes the case for personalisation: “One-to-one careers advice would be really valued by young people all over the country, because it’s personalised advice to them and their career opportunities. Generalised information, though it can be helpful, is incredibly limited.”
Ava echoes this, pointing to the gap between information access and genuine opportunity: “There’s a lot more information that you can access, but less specialised one-to-one opportunities. Less practical guidance and real-world experience. What would help a lot more is if there were tangible opportunities that people were guided towards and knew that they could apply for, actually getting involved in the industry.”
Joanne’s experience is instructive here too. The careers sessions in her school that used tools to help students identify interests and explore sectors gave her a direction. The work experience she then sought out herself gave her conviction. The combination of structured exploration and real-world immersion is what moved her from uncertainty to confidence, and that combination is exactly what the data shows students are asking for.
For employers, this means going beyond the one-off talk or the stand at a careers fair. James, a psychology graduate now working in tutoring and community learning, speaks directly to what falls short: “Vague expectations about daily responsibilities during the recruitment process. And generic automated responses with very little personalised feedback, no clear reason why applications are being rejected.” Students who invest effort in learning about an employer, attending events, and going through application processes deserve more than silence or templated rejections.
Jo draws on her experience working with schools and colleges to describe what good looks like in practice: “It’s that multi-touch point engagement. Rather than one-off talks that leave students with more questions, giving them the chance to be a bit hands-on and complete activities that reflect what happens in a real working day.” And critically: the follow-through. “It’s all very well going to an event, but then you perhaps need to sit down with someone and say, what did you learn from that? How did that make you think about your future?“
What This Means for Employers
The 2026 Gen Z Careers Report does not describe a generation that is passive, disengaged, or unrealistic. It describes a generation under genuine pressure, starting to think about careers younger than ever, stressed by the weight of those decisions, constrained by financial reality, and actively asking for the kind of honest, practical, personalised support that helps them make informed choices.
The opportunity for employers is significant. Schools and colleges are actively seeking employer engagement. Students are responsive to real-world experiences, authentic voices, and transparent information. And the organisations that engage early, communicate clearly, and offer genuine opportunities to explore, rather than just broadcast , will build the kind of recognition and trust that translates into stronger, more committed early talent pipelines.
Practically, this means thinking about how your organisation engages with students before they ever reach a job application. It means being transparent about pay, progression, and the realities of roles. It means offering work experience that gives genuine insight rather than a curated version of corporate life. And it means remembering that the students applying to your programmes have been thinking about this moment, in many cases, since they were twelve years old.
The full 2026 Gen Z Careers Report, in partnership with SpringPod, is available now. It includes detailed analysis across gender, ethnicity, social background, and age groups, as well as data on the channels students are using to research careers, including how they are using AI in that process.
If you would like to discuss how the findings in this report could inform your early careers attraction, engagement, or assessment strategy, we would love to hear from you. Get in touch today and let’s explore what the right approach looks like for your organisation.
Download the Full Gen Z Careers Report 2026
The findings in this blog are just the headlines. The full 2026 Gen Z Careers Report, produced by Amberjack in partnership with SpringPod, includes detailed breakdowns across gender, ethnicity, social background, and age group, as well as deeper analysis on how students are using AI to research careers and what the data means for your early talent strategy.
Download your copy today and find out what the next generation of talent really needs from employers.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is the Amberjack and SpringPod Gen Z Careers Report 2026?Â
The Gen Z Careers Report is an annual research study produced by Amberjack in partnership with SpringPod, now in its third year. The 2026 report surveyed 1,277 students across a broad range of ages, genders, ethnicities, and social backgrounds to understand how young people are thinking about their careers, what influences their decisions, and what support they need. The full report includes detailed demographic analysis and is available to download now.
2. At what age do students start thinking seriously about their careers?Â
The data shows that over 86% of students had seriously thought about their career by age 16, with the most common response being before the age of 13. Despite this early awareness, almost half of students spend less than an hour per week actively researching career options, pointing to a significant gap between thinking about the future and knowing how to navigate it.
3. How is the cost of living affecting young people’s career decisions?Â
Around two-thirds of students in the 2026 report say the cost of living crisis is actively influencing their career choices. Salary is now the number one deciding factor for nearly half of all respondents. Students are making practical decisions about location, pathway, and sector based on financial viability, with some feeling compelled to set aside their original ambitions for roles that offer greater stability and earnings.
4. Why is career confidence declining as students get older?Â
Only 18% of students say they feel confident in their chosen career path, and stress levels increase significantly with age, rather than decreasing as students gain experience. This is driven by a combination of factors: media narratives around a difficult job market, exam and application pressure, family expectations, and the practical weight of having to commit to a path. Practical, immersive work experience is consistently cited as the most powerful antidote to this uncertainty.
5. What do students actually want from careers support?
Over 80% want realistic careers advice, and nearly 70% want clear, step-by-step guidance on how to reach the career they are interested in. Students are not asking for more information; they want structured, honest, personalised guidance and real opportunities to gain practical experience. One-to-one advice, tangible work experience, and direct access to people working in their areas of interest are consistently valued more highly than general information events.
6. What can employers do to engage Gen Z more effectively?Â
The most impactful actions are practical and early. Engage with schools and colleges before students reach recruitment age, offering progressive, multi-touch experiences rather than one-off events. Be transparent about salary, career progression, and the realities of roles. Involve current graduates, apprentices, and employees as authentic voices. And recognise that this generation has been thinking about their careers for a long time, and they are looking for employers who treat that seriously.
