Gen Z Men Aren't Losing Ambition, They're Redefining What Winning Loo

Before discussing behavior, we need to look at the economic context shaping these choices.

As reported by Kontan, the share of Indonesia's middle class shrank from 21.45% of the population in 2019 to 17.13% in 2024, then fell further to 16.6% in 2025. BPS data processed by Mandiri Institute shows the absolute number moved from 47.9 million people in 2024 to 46.7 million in 2025 — around 1.2 million people dropped out of that category in a single year.

The group that grew is the "aspiring middle class" — those who have escaped poverty but haven't yet reached middle-class status. Their numbers rose from 137.5 million to 142 million people, or 50.4% of the total population.

These figures apply to the population as a whole and aren't broken down by generation. What we can safely say is about timing. Gen Z is entering its productive years at a moment when upward economic mobility no longer feels automatic, and when even a position already achieved can turn out to slip backward.

This context matters so that what follows isn't read as a description of generational character. What changed first was the environment.

A Jakpat survey from December 2024, reported by Databoks, found that 69% of Gen Z rank salary as the top consideration when job hunting. A similar finding appears in the Indonesia Gen Z Report 2024, compiled by IDN Research Institute with Advisia: 78% of Gen Z respondents named salary and benefits as what they look for most in a workplace, followed by career prospects (60%), company culture (53%), and flexible working hours (32%).

Both surveys show what's prioritized, but not the reasoning behind it. This is where the earlier economic context comes in. In a situation where one's economic position can shift downward within a year, salary can be read as serving a dual function. Salary is purchasing power, and at the same time a safe distance from things that are hard to predict. The size of a paycheck helps determine how long someone can hold out if they lose their job, how much leverage they have to turn down a bad offer, and how quickly they can move if things get worse.

Read this way, a high salary functions closer to insurance than to lifestyle. This reading is our own editorial interpretation of the two surveys above, and the next section shows why it's reasonable to carry that interpretation forward.

A more interesting picture emerges when we look at what Gen Z wants beyond salary size.

A Jakpat survey of 1,262 respondents found that 35% of Gen Z prefer a work-from-anywhere arrangement and 32% prefer hybrid work. Populix, in its report The Future of Work: Freelancing in Indonesia (2023), found that 58% of Indonesian Gen Z are interested in freelance work, citing flexibility and the ability to set their own pace.

One more finding rounds out the picture. A Jakpat survey titled Trends in Modern Entrepreneurship 2026 found that 48% of Gen Z prioritize business legality when starting a venture — higher than millennials (34%) and Gen X (36%).

These findings suggest that flexibility doesn't necessarily mean rejecting structure. Some Gen Z appear equally interested in building a form of work or business that gives them room to determine their own way of doing it.

It's worth noting that flexible working hours ranked lowest (32%) among the four factors in the Indonesia Gen Z Report 2024, behind salary, career, and company culture. Flexibility appears as a complement to ambition, not a replacement for it. What emerges from combining the two is the picture of a generation that wants results as much as it wants room to determine how to get them.

A Jakpat survey from March 2025, with 1,549 respondents, found that 88% of Gen Z and millennials are interested in self-development activities.

The breakdown is worth reading slowly, since it isn't entirely about building professional skills. 61% cited increasing religious practice, 56% practicing gratitude, 51% organizing their lives to be tidier, and 41% taking courses.

In other words, the hypothesis that human capital is replacing financial capital is only partly supported by this data. Courses rank last among the four most-cited activities.

All four still share one interesting trait. Each can be done at the individual level, without significant capital, with outcomes depending mainly on one's own effort. When many economic factors sit beyond a person's reach, activities that can be started and managed independently become one of the few areas that still feel controllable. Religious practice and gratitude govern how someone faces their circumstances; organizing one's life and taking courses govern their ability to move when circumstances change.

Up to this point, all the data discussed has been generational. A Jakpat survey published by GoodStats in December 2025, with 1,158 respondents, is the first point where a clear gender gap shows up in Gen Z's everyday habits.

64% of Gen Z men play games, compared with 39% of women. 42% exercise, compared with 23% of women. For hanging out with friends, the figures are 43% versus 34%.

The two activities with the widest gap share something in common: both demand active participation, present gradual challenges, and offer relatively easy-to-see markers of progress. In gaming, progress reads as levels, ranks, and achievements. In sports, progress reads as targets, training, and changes you can feel and measure on your own body.

Compare that with how progress feels at work or within the broader economy. There, feedback is slower, blurrier, and often determined by factors beyond personal effort.

Is that why activities with clear feedback feel appealing?

We're leaving this question deliberately open. The GoodStats survey measures what people do, not why they do it. What we can offer is one possible reading: activities that provide a visible sense of progress may hold particular appeal for Gen Z during a period when progress in other areas feels slow.

The figure for hanging out with friends is also higher among men, which sharpens the pattern. What stands out in this group is participatory activity in general — activity that requires someone to actively do something.

Research by IDN Research Institute, conducted from January to April 2026 with 183 respondents and published in the Indonesia Millennial and Gen Z Report 2027, found that 81.1% of Indonesian Gen Z have opened up to artificial intelligence, compared with 63.6% of millennials. The topics that came up most often were overthinking and anxiety, career and the future, and burnout — all three directly tied to the uncertainty this article opened with.

Stepping back to look at all this data together, one common thread emerges.

A bigger salary provides a safety margin. Freelance and flexible work provide control over time. Business legality provides protection over something built independently. Courses, religious practice, organizing one's life, and exercise are activities whose outcomes depend on one's own effort. Gaming provides immediate, measurable feedback.

All of these are areas where personal action still feels like it matters. These surveys were conducted separately, with different respondents and objectives, so what we can point to is the pattern — and that pattern is consistent enough to be worth noting.

If this interpretation is close to reality, the narrative that Gen Z is scaling back its ambition needs revisiting. Their aspirations haven't shrunk. What's changed is the definition of wealth itself — from owning more to having more choice.

The difference shows up in what's being promised. The most relevant value may lie in the ability to save time, expand choice, build capability, reduce dependence on a single source of income, and make it easier for consumers to switch when circumstances change. All of these are commercial versions of the same pattern: expanding the area where a person's actions still feel like they matter.

And for brands, the opportunity lies in the same place. In a period when choice itself feels increasingly expensive, helping consumers preserve or expand their choices may carry more value than offering one more thing to own.

The implication for communication is fairly clear. Messaging that shows what consumers can do with a product stands a better chance of working than messaging that shows what the product says about who they are. This is a hypothesis that can be tested through message testing, and this article offers it as a direction, not a conclusion.

References

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Databoks. (2024). Gaji jadi hal yang paling disorot Gen Z saat mencari tempat kerja. https://databoks.katadata.co.id/ketenagakerjaan/statistik/4f16e3ace510432/gaji-jadi-hal-yang-paling-disorot-gen-z-saat-mencari-tempat-kerja. Accessed September 7, 2026.

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