Are Millennials a "lost generation?"

[davidn3600]

It’s hard out there for a Millennial. While the national unemployment rate has kept firm at 7.9%, the jobless rate for Millennials (or the 80 million Americans born between 1980 and 2000) continues to increase, reaching the alarming rate of 13.1% in January. Millennials now have the highest generational unemployment in the United States.

The Pew Center calls Millennials the “boomerang generation," because nearly 40% of all Americans between the ages of 18-34 still live at home with their parents; numbers this high haven’t been seen in over 70 years. And the boomerang trend is expected to continue or even worsen. The National Bureau of Economic Research reports that those who graduate during a recession will earn 10% less over a decade of work. Unfortunately for Millennials, research shows that 70% of overall wage growth occurs in the first 10 years of one's career.

But those who do manage to find jobs are also struggling. Young people with high school degrees have seen their inflation-adjusted wages decline by 11.1%; college graduates have seen a smaller, yet significant, decline of 5.4%, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

As a result, Millennials aren’t taking on debt or making economy-boosting purchases. Young people aren’t buying houses or cars and they’re delaying marriage and children. According to The Pew Center, home ownership amongst young people has fallen from 40% in 2007 to only 34% in 2011. 73% of young households owned or leased a car in 2007 compared with only 66% in 2011.

More:
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/millenials-lost-generation-130643180.html;_ylt=A2KJ2UYstTFRYxkAfzTQtDMD

[Demo_Chris]

1. Everyone after the boomers is a lost generation. n/t

[abelenkpe]

6. Yep

Gen X is a lost generation, but millenials can't even get started.

[Warpy]

2. Many of them are

especially if they went to college, graduated, and are saddled with crushing debt that will affect their ability to hit all the milestones like the marriage, the house, the kids and the dog with hair in its eyes. They'll be too busy paying down that damned debt if they're lucky enough to get a job that will do it to do much of anything else.

If they didn't get such a job, and most didn't in this economy, they'll be living with Mom & Dad and paying little or no rent and paying the debt instead out of whatever shitwork they can get.

The ones who didn't go to college are lucky if they managed to get to a trade school. Their debt is lower and skilled tradesmen will always be in demand since entropy rules and stuff is always breaking down.

Things have been grisly for all the kids who came of age after the mid 90s. The eldest saw full employment and rising wages for a few years until the bottom fell out when Stupid got in and cut taxes on the rich. The economy was barely on life support after that happened and the boomerang kids started to be the norm instead of a curiosity.

It is not going to improve soon, I'm afraid, unless people in gerrymandered districts wise the hell up and throw the Republicans out of office.

[davidn3600]

5. Student loans will also haunt you forever

These are not debts like credit cards or auto loans or mortgages where there are ways to get out of them...or sometimes even walk away...or can be discharged in bankruptcy. Student loans go nowhere until you pay them off. And some grads today have student loans that are bigger than mortgages.

[abelenkpe]

8. Some grads today?

I graduated in 1994 and many of my classmates had taken out up to 80,000 to 100,000 then. They are still paying those loans! A home or car purchased at the same time for the same amount would have been paid off long ago. Someone needs to examine why the terms of student loans are so much more onerous and why they take so long to get paid off. Today is worse. I'm always pleading with relatives and friends to not let their kids take out loans. It's a heavy burden. But without a degree quality jobs a scarce. Of course they are scarce with a degree too.
We need affordable education. The reward for excelling in school shouldn't be a lifetime of debt in order to go to college.

[eridani]

3. It's well known that people entering the work force in a depression have drastically reduced--

--lifetime incomes. And for people who think they are helping Millenials by cutting Social Security--fuck you all straight to hell.

One of my nephews graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in history, specializing in the Middle East. He took four years of Persian. He has never had a job even remotely requiring this training--every single one has been the sort of job he had when working his way through school. He has no savings, has never had an employer who offered a 401(k), much less a defined benefits pension, no options in the immediate future for marrying, let alone having kids. Seems like a job scrubbing floors at a resort hotel isn't exactly a "chick magnet."

And many Dem members of Congress are supporting chained CPI and raising the retirement age to 69. My nephew may possibly get a job that makes use of his training, but if he doesn't, he will be replaced in his late 50s by someone much younger who can scrub floors faster. How in fucking HELL is he supposed to stay alive until age 69?

[oldhippie]

12. I have to wonder .....

.... what was your nephew thinking when he got a degree in Middle East history and took four years of Persian? Did he think there were going to be a lot of high paying, interesting jobs using these skills? Other than a teaching position, or something with the CIA or State Dept., I'm not sure where there are many jobs utilizing those skills.

I can fully understand study of a favorite subject, and getting a degree in something you really find interesting, but I think one shouldn't be too surprised if one can't find a job in an esoteric field. My little brother took nine years to get his degree in English Literature. Then he worked as a house painter for most of his life. He never made much money, but said he was the most educated painter on his crew.

I hope your nephew finds something more appropriate.

[tabbycat31]

13. This is the kind of attitude that gets under my skin

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. If I was told that I had to get a STEM degree, I probably would have killed myself. I struggled with math and science in high school (I needed a tutor just to pass) and was VERY happy to leave them behind.

In my parent's generation, your degree did not matter as long as you had it. My mom majored in fashion design.

Now it does, and not only your degree but where you went. Prior to leaving the corporate world (kiss my ass Corporate America), I worked my way through college at Kohl's. After graduating, I wanted to do something that was not retail, and the attitude I got from employers was that I was an uppity low class schmuck who needed to go back to her place in retail. I actually walked out of a job interview with a well known rental car company who also lost me as a customer that day. I was asked about my activities in college, and I told her that I worked full time and attended school full time and did not have time for any activities. I then said to her in a very sarcastic voice "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't think that partying your way through Harvard was a requirement to work at a rental car company" and walked out.

Now I work in politics, which I love, and what your degree is in truly does not matter. I hired 5 people last cycle, and their degrees were in religion, international relations (2), political science, and acting.

[oldhippie]

14. Don't get me wrong ....

I am a great believer in the classic liberal arts education. If I were King, I would encourage as many as possible to study literature, art, music, history and philosophy. Those subjects help one to think and appreciate the things and society around them. BUT, the reality of modern day commerce is such that employers want someone with a more directly applicable set of skills. And they can get them. Yes, there are positions, like in politics, or counseling, or sales where a classic education can be acceptable and/or useful.

I went the practical route, getting a BSEE and later a couple of MBAs and muddled my way through my career with those. Now that I am retired I am finally (independently) studying art, music, European history and global economics, things I really enjoy. (I have to admit, though, I still have a hard time with Philosophy. So many concepts, and each one causes an avalanche of thought on its own. Makes my brain hurt.)

The fact that you ended up in a field you love is great. I did,too. But way too many people don't.

[davidn3600]

16. It's not just liberal arts anymore

MBAs are flooding the market now. Accounting majors are flooding the market now.

So yeah, the liberal arts majors kind of got flooded. Students figured that out and now flooding other areas too. IT jobs are saturated. Business degrees are now becoming saturated. And healthcare is likely next. I've even met some engineering majors starting to see problems.

The simple fact is that there isn't enough jobs anymore. And a college education, for most majors now, are not as marketable on the job market because everyone has a degree now. It's being called, "degree inflation." You now need a bachelors degree to get a job that only required a HS diploma 15 years ago.

Add that to the fact that any of these degrees are becoming incredibly expensive, the youth is going to be severely disadvantaged in a few years.

[boomerbust]

4. Bout time

The Gen X takes a little responsibility for their own failures instead of auomatically pointing their fat little fingers at the Boomers.

[Earth_First]

7. Pardon me?

I will NOT take responsibility for fourty years of bad government and disaster capitalism.

[abelenkpe]

9. Me either

To heck with that!

[Earth_First]

10. boomerbusts response is classist and divisive

Blaming another group for the failings of a demographic who was largely not responsible is a GOP tactic; certianly NOT something I would expect to hear from a Democrat or Progressive...

[MAD Dave]

11. I love being bent over the barrel.

The policy decisions made by my parents (Boomers) and grandparents (pre war generation) have directly affected me. I have been underemployed for at least 10 of the 14 years since I received my B.Sc.

The biggest factor affecting me is the two recessions that I have endured since graduating and the resulting workforce shrinkage. Boomers left and their positions were never filled or the Boomers simply never left leaving the Gen X'er jobs to be cut.

[Demo_Chris]

17. Get back to me when you find something you DIDN'T fuck up

Seriously. Find one damn thing where this generation inherited a disaster and improved the situation. Good luck.

[marions ghost]

21. Let's point the finger at the persons who fucked up

generational warfare is a tool of the dividers.

[Demo_Chris]

22. Did you catch the thread I was responding to? :) -nt-

[felix_numinous]

15. The Fourth Turning

by Strauss and Howe, is a very interesting book on the subject of generations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss–Howe_generational_theory

Thom Hartman did a segment here:

Enjoy

[Demo_Chris]

18. Very interesting, thanks for posting

[Midwestern Democrat]

19. As a Gen Xer, my heart breaks for the Millenials - I think every Gen Xer is pretty cognizant of the

fact that he or she was very fortunate to get out of college and in the workforce before the bubble finally burst - frankly, I feel somewhat like the guy who drove across the bridge just before it collapsed - very thankful for my luck but very disturbed in the knowledge that that's all it was - just pure dumb luck.

[reformist2]

20. This is the harbinger of very painful deflation, that will affect everyone.

Millions of new adults without jobs that cannot buy things. Including your stocks and homes that you think you can retire on....

[reformist2]

23. Any thoughts on the above post? I think the problems of the Millennials will affect us all...

[davidn3600]

24. Especially social security and medicare

With the youth and middle class making less money, there will be less money than planned going into social security, medicare, and other programs.