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In 2025, our collective mental health in the U.S. is worsening, with some reports calling it a “crisis.” But when it comes to millennials and Gen Z employees, that national concern may be even more urgent with financial anxiety driving the crisis.A Modern Health report published today revealed just how mentally strained 18- to 44-year-old workers are, and the findings are troubling. In a survey of 1,000 American professionals within the age range, a staggering 79% said that economic uncertainty is fueling their anxiety. A dismal 16% rated their mental health as excellent. For millennials and Gen Z, financial anxiety seems to be all encompassing. Three in four workers said it is to blame for their burnout, 68% said it interferes with their ability to be productive at work, and it keeps 76% up at night, routinely disturbing their sleep. In a press release, Matt Levin, CEO of Modern Health, said, Our latest report reveals that many of todays young workers are quietly pushing through mounting mental health challenges just to keep up at work.” One massive issue seems to be the feeling that they can’t step away or log off. Nearly three quarters (74%) said they’ve delayed taking time off due to financial concerns. And 77% say they check emails when they do take time off. A concerning 80% said they’ve sacrificed their mental health for work and 77% say they’ve even worked through a mental health crisis. While you might think 18- to 44-year-olds are more in tune with mental health concerns than older age groups, they largely feel forced to ignore their mental health concerns. Over half (58%) said they delayed seeking mental health care until their symptoms became unmanageable, with 66% pointing to financial stress as the reason for delaying getting the care they needed. “For many employees, the pressure to perform outweighs the permission to pause,” Jessica Watrous, senior director of Clinical Research and Scientific Affairs at Modern Health, said in the report. “They want to do well, but they feel they can’t ask for help even when they need it most.” Gen Z and millennials say they want mental health support at work, but aren’t getting it or the support isn’t effective. In fact, nearly three quarters (71%) say that company mental health programs just mask toxic work culture that deprioritizes employee mental health over all. While an overwhelming majority, (96%) say prevention is key, with 94% saying it would improve their life overall, and 52% saying that mental health care would increase the trust they have in their employer, the vast majority do not feel a culture of prevention exists in their workplace. Only 31% of employees actually feel that their employers care about their mental health and create work cultures that support it. Millennials and Gen Z are struggling, while not getting the help they need. They also feel stuck. While 52% have considered quitting due to mental health concerns, 69% said they’re avoiding changing jobs, even if it means staying in toxic environments. Essentially, financial anxiety is simply so crushing, that making changeswhether that be seeking help or getting a new jobfeels impossible.
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E-Commerce
Yet another CEO in the artificial intelligence space is warning that major job losses are imminent due to advancements in the technologyand they may come much sooner than many anticipate. Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, cautioned that roles such as recruiters and executive assistants could soon be rendered obsolete by the next wave of AI improvements, particularly as AI browsers become more widely adopted. Perplexity recently launched the Comet AI browser, featuring an Assistant mode capable of researching topics, booking flights, scheduling meetings, and more. Speaking on The Verges Decoder podcast, Srinivas acknowledged that while Comet currently struggles with long-horizon tasks, human assistants are still needed to manage complex workflows. However, he added, “I’m pretty sure [that within] six months to a year from now, it can do the entire thing.” The emergence of more advanced reasoning models, he said, could put recruiter roles especially at risk. “I’m betting on the fact that a sufficiently good reasoning model could get us over the edge where all these things are suddenly possible and then a recruiters work worth one week is just one prompt: sourcing and reach outs,” he said. Srinivas believes that with access to a user’s Gmail and calendar, Comet’s AI Assistant can not only match a human assistants capabilities but even exceed them when it comes to follow-ups. For example, if a meeting invite is sent and responses begin rolling in, the AI can “go and update the Google Sheets, mark the status as responded or in progress and follow up with those candidates, sync with my Google calendar, and then resolve conflicts and schedule a chat, and then push me a brief ahead of the meeting.” According to Srinivas, the ultimate vision is to turn the web browser into a sort of operating systemrunning tasks in the background all day to streamline the user’s schedule. While theres still a way to go before reaching that point universally, he said Perplexity is close to realizing this goal in specific areas. If successful, he believes word-of-mouth adoption could fuel further growth. “We nail those use cases, get the early adopters to love the product, and then ride the wave of progress and reasoning models,” he said. “Thats been the strategy.” Srinivas is far from alone in raising concerns about AI’s disruptive potential for the job market. In May, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told Axios that AI could eliminate up to 50% of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, potentially pushing unemployment as high as 10% to 20%. That warning, he emphasized, was meant for both policymakers and fellow AI developers. “Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen,” Amodei said. “It sounds crazy, and people just don’t believe it. We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming.” Also in May, LinkedIns Chief Economic Opportunity Officer Aneesh Raman noted that AI increasingly threatens the kinds of jobs that have traditionally served as stepping stones for young professionals. Venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee has gone further, calling forecasts that AI will displace 50% of jobs by 2027 “uncannily accurate.” Still, there are signs of pushback and recalibration among companies that have embraced an “AI-first” philosophy. At Klarna, for instance, despite ongoing AI investments, the company has come to value human interaction more deeply. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told Bloomberg in May that the fintech firm was preparing to hire more staff to ensure customers always have the option to speak with a live representative. Similarly, Duolingos pivot to AI-led operationsannouncing it would reduce reliance on contractors for tasks AI can performsparked strong backlash from users. A company spokesperson told Fast Company in May that Duolingo was “committed to using AI with human oversight, to help us deliver on our mission to make the best education in the world available to everyone.”
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E-Commerce
Around this time last year, Southwest Airlines announced that it would scrap its signature open-seating model in favor of a more traditional assigned seating system, chipping away at its identity as a quirky airline in order to better compete with rivals like Delta Air Lines and American Airlines. A year later, Southwest is finally gearing up to sell its first assigned-seat tickets. Over the past few months, Southwest has been slowly shedding the features that once made its brand stand out. The airline built its name around its uniquely standardized open-seating boarding systemwhich meant that every customer flew in the same kind of seat, without any divisions by price tier. Last July, though, the airline announced that it would implement new premium features (like seats with expanded legroom) and assigned seating. This March, Southwest killed its bags fly free policy, which offered every flier two free checked bags. And in April, the airline overhauled its fare bundles to include more expensive fares with better amenities. Southwest expects these new policies, among others, to add $800 million to earnings before interest and taxes this year, and add $1.7 billion in 2026. Starting on July 29, Southwest will sell assigned-seat tickets, and planes with the updated seating will take to the skies on January 27 of next year. The airline recently shared more details about how its boarding process is set to change. Less time pressure, but a more segmented cabin Southwests current open-seating boarding process is simple: Passengers line up behind stanchions based on their boarding group (labeled by letters A to C) and then pick an available seat once theyre on board the plane. In an investors call last July, Southwests executive vice president Ryan Green noted that this process is relatively calm but can create time pressure once customers are inside the cabin. Some of that pressure will be alleviated under this new system, with the trade-off being that the cabin will now be segmented into standard and premium seating sections. In an interview with CNBC, Southwest executives shared that the new boarding system was designed using computer models and live testing in order to ensure that the assigned seating wouldnt slow the process down. We wanted to make sure that, as we designed a boarding construct that paired well with assigned seating, we were optimizing for efficiency. But also for the second priority: making sure that were taking care of our most loyal customers, Stephanie Shafer Modi, managing director of fares and ancillary products at Southwest, told CNBC. [That includes] tier members, cardholders, and customers who buy our most premium products. An eight-group boarding system The updated boarding system reflects Southwest’s increasing focus on high-paying passengers. Under the new parameters, customers will be prompted to choose a fare bundle when they first purchase a ticket, and they’ll receive a letter and a seat number when they check in onlinesimilar to the current system. However, once they arrive at the airport, passengers will be separated into two lines and eight different boarding groups: The first two groups to board will include the top tiers of elite frequent fliers, and those with the top classes of tickets (Choice Extra and Choice Plus). Groups 3 through 8 will be for Choice and Basic ticket holders, depending on their seat location. Credit card holders and Rapid Rewards credit card members will board no later than Group 5. Despite the changes, Green said last July: We expect our future boarding process to feel very familiar and uniquely Southwest.
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E-Commerce
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