The Millennial Generation Will Be Just Fine

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The millennial generation — also dubbed Generation Y — is a wide-ranging demographic cohort that includes folks born in the early 1980s to folks born in the early 2000s. But all millennials have one thing in common:

They’re screwed.

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At least … that’s the sense you get from the never-ending coverage of millennials.

To start, there’s the ugly labor picture: Almost 44% of college graduates are underemployed, with nearly 9% stuck in low-wage jobs offering less than $25,000 per year. Younger workers make up a declining share of the labor forcelive at home with mom and pop, and unemployment for “young people” (age 18 to 29) sits at 15.8%.

But perhaps worse are the stereotypes: that Gen Y is full of “lazy, entitled narcissists”; that millennials are unprepared for the workforce; that the Millenial Generation is pushing aside serious relationships for “hookup culture”; that we simply stare at our iPhones all day, shunning real conversations and relationships.

Thing is … millennials certainly are struggling with different problems than the generations before them. But millennials are far from the first up-and-coming generation to get slapped with a brutal wake-up call. A few factors are simply making the situation seem more alarming this go-round.

A Culture of Cheerleading

Our parents were raised by folks who grew up during the Great Depression, which naturally resulted in a focus on securing the necessities. However, millennials had the “luxury” of being raised in a much more idealistic time in which the emphasis has shifted from mere survival to success.

But we’ve shifted toward a culture that changes our definition of success so that no one ever fails. And when kids do fail, we often reach for an excuse — whether that means blaming a teacher or possibly pushing for a diagnosis that could explain the issue away.

The end result: Many parents are raising children who don’t understand that the real world doesn’t offer so many security blankets — especially when a recession hits.

The Good News: The real world seems to be a ruder awakening for many members of the up-and-coming age group, but other generations had to suffer through this transition as well — some better-equipped for it than others. Many often-mocked “flower children” went on to be productive members of the workplace, there’s no reason the same can’t hold true for Gen Y. Some will flunk out, but even some of the most ill-equipped or coddled millennials will survive. They will adapt for the workplace and the realities of adulthood, just as generations before did.

A Media Frenzy

Every generation has suffered growing pains in their transition to adulthood. Where millennials differ is that they face louder criticisms than any previous generation suffered, and from more directions.

Generation Y doesn’t just hear these concerns from parents and a few other involved adults, as often was the case in the past. Instead, the struggles and stats and dumb things 20-somethings say are broadcast everywhere — social media, news reports, you name it — and usually are delivered in sweeping generalizations.

The conversation has moved from living rooms to the mainstream media, and from an individual level to a much broader one.

The Good News: On the one hand, the media’s frenzy over this topic is problematic. Still, we have to realize that it’s partly thanks to the rise and reach of the Internet, which can be a valuable resource just as much as it can be a distraction or problem. Millennials have nearly endless information at their fingertips — a resource previous generations lacked at this stage in the game.

A Tough Market

Finally, a reality that’s perplexingly breezed over in many landscape pieces of Gen Y is how much of an effect the Great Recession had on millennials.

Whenever a downturn strikes, the young always get rocked the hardest — even if they’re perfectly prepped for the workplace or raised by “Tiger Mothers.” The Great Recession and the subsequent jobs crunch has made the wake-up call that much harsher for the millennial generation, as it also made the weight of student loans that much heavier, made every ounce of unpreparedness take an even greater toll and made an already difficult transition that much uglier.

The Good News: Remember, though: There’s a big difference between a slow, tough recovery and a generation being eternally screwed — even if headlines can’t seem to find that middle ground. For example, there are countless hand-wringing and alarmist headlines over the fact that more and more graduates are moving back in with their parents. But considering these grads often have low-paying jobs and are saddled with student debt, bunking with Mom and Pop is actually the fiscally responsible choice. A good chunk of the millennial generation would much rather be living with roommates, not ‘rents — but they’re sacrificing that to control their debt and save some green.

Bottom Line

Facing a tough job market after a coddled upbringing is anything but easy — especially when topped with around-the-clock coverage of both those challenges and their dire consequences. But struggles and speed bumps are hardly the same thing as a catastrophe. At the end of the day, there’s no need to ring the alarm.

It all isn’t pretty, but the millennials will muddle through — just like every generation has before.

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Alyssa Oursler is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2014/03/millennial-generation-y/.

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