Young people who choose to ‘lie flat’ instead of work may pay a high price in the future

A lot of people, mostly young and well-educated, are choosing to drop out of the workforce across the developed world, writes Hamish McRae. What are the long-term implications of this?

Vacancies have hit record highs, but many people don’t want the jobs on offer (Getty/iStock)

The job market is booming on both sides of the Atlantic. Vacancies in the UK are at an all-time record, while the number of people in employment is back to the pre-pandemic level. In the US, the most recent data show nearly 11 million unfilled vacancies, also the highest ever. But many people, particularly the young and well-educated, don’t want to take the jobs on offer. Instead they would prefer to “lie flat”.

If you have not come across the expression, this has nothing to do with flying business class. It is a social phenomenon that started in China, has spread to America and seems to be evident here in the UK too. The Brookings Institution in Washington explains that “the ‘lying flat’ movement calls on young workers and professionals, including the middle-class Chinese who are to be the engine of Xi Jinping’s domestic boom, to opt out of the struggle for workplace success, and to reject the promise of consumer fulfillment”.

What began as a reaction against the stresses of life in modern China – and of the government’s drive for global economic leadership – became in the US a more general rethinking of priorities as a result of the pandemic. It also seems to have moved socially up-market, away from the grind that faces the Chinese middle class, to the more comfortable circumstances of young American professionals. Objectively it is a lot less stressful to work for a large US enterprise than it would be to work for a Chinese one – working hours are shorter for a start. But many young Americans complain of stress, and according to the New York Fed, a much higher proportion of under-45s are considering leaving the workforce compared with over-45s: 2.3 per cent vis-a-vis 0.9 per cent.