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I think this is true, and that it is depressing. I know exactly ONE millennial who is successful. I know a couple more who are on a slow but upward career path: they're not superstars but at least they are on the right track. Many, many others that I know are in "dead-end" jobs or have gone back to school indefinitely (FWIW, I am from the next older generation "X").
The successful one is a hard-working young guy, very motivated by money. He has a little bit of flash, but it is really income and not the shiny things that it can buy that motivates him. He figured out how to automate some SCM software and presented it to his management as a method to reduce costs (made a couple of others redundant, basically). He's just cracked six figures and is in his 20s. He's also pretty watchful of expenses, although he does splurge a bit. I'm trying to mentor him on retirement.
Long story short, I do not see how -- as a society -- the US can rely on the existing funding mechanisms for retirement (self-directed 401k, savings, social security) for this millennial generation. They are NOT saving what they need to (200k by age 30; 500k by 40; 1MM plus by 50). And I don't think that it's because they're not trying to save. In fact, some recent financial data indicates that millennials are better savers than their elders. I think they are simply not making enough income to save.
A lot of the "how well are people doing" is location dependent. People often forget that.
I live in a town of ~50,000 in east TN. The nearest major metro, Charlotte, is three hours away. The manufacturing-based economy was hollowed out over the years - we've replaced white and blue collar jobs with call centers, retail, and food service - low wage junk jobs.
Most of my peers from high school and below who wanted to do something with their lives have since moved off. One of my classmates has been a set designer for various movies, mostly Disney, in Atlanta. One of my classmates is an art director and has lived in NYC and San Francisco. I have several personal friends who are software developers and engineers in their late 20s - early 30s who live in major metros all over the country. One is a wildly successful serial entrepreneur who has probably well into their eight figures of net worth at 28 with businesses at nine figures of revenue. I have no idea what these folks are worth/are making but they have good jobs so they have to potential to do reasonably well.
The remainder of my cohort who are still here are often working class to working poor. Many have several kids, often out of wedlock. If they're working, it's mostly blue collar or low skill work that often comes with few benefits. Several of my classmates who are in this demographic complain on Facebook that they're working for $10-$12/hr. At that income, it's going to take all you have to merely pay basic bills. Many are probably on some form of assistance. Median household income in my town is around $35,000. Drug addiction and other social ills are rampant among younger people. There are a few people around my age doing well, mostly in the medical industry, but they're small in number.
I just moved back here from an affluent suburb of Indianapolis. The median household income there was nearly $100,000. I worked at a software development firm that supplied products and services to the investment banking industry. You had to pass a cognitive analytical test in the interview to even be considered, so everyone there was intelligent - there was probably no one employed there under a 120 IQ, and only one person was over 35.
Given the nature of the firm, almost everyone there had a better than average understanding of markets/investing. Wages were high for the area. Many of them were married to another reasonably high income professional - the senior systems analyst is mid 30s and married to an attorney with her own small legal practice. The team lead there was married to a school principal in an affluent school district. I'd say almost all the married staff were in households with at least $150k HHI.
This suburb isn't "young," but the median age is somewhere around five years younger than my hometown with a median age around 40. It's not common, but certainly not unusual to meet a ~30 year old couple pulling in $200k combined and living in a half million dollar home. That's virtually unheard of around here.
The Millennials are the first generation to be free of the threat of war/hostile enemies.
When the Cold War with the Soviets ended in the 80's, a sense of apathy set in. A threat like the Nazi's in WW2, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam etc. has a way of uniting a nation. Without an enemy to polarize and unite, a nation turns on itself and that's why we have such division from within today.
The Millennials are the first generation to be free of the threat of war/hostile enemies.
When the Cold War with the Soviets ended in the 80's, a sense of apathy set in. A threat like the Nazi's in WW2, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam etc. has a way of uniting a nation. Without an enemy to polarize and unite, a nation turns on itself and that's why we have such division from within today.
True, there's no major superpower threat to unify people, but it's still a dangerous world out there, for different reasons these days.
We're going through a transition similar to the agricultural to mechanical revolution in the 19th/20th centuries. We no longer need laborers or people to do menial type work. We need people to study computer science, engineering, medicine, fields that are providing 21st century job opportunities. The problem is a lot of people aren't smart enough to study those fields, or people who are unwilling to. Those people are going to be in trouble!
Sure old jobs are replaced by newer jobs. But the newer jobs require a higher IQ than the past ones used to, and require a degree in the subjects I mentioned earlier. The transistor from working in the fields to working in a factory was not as painful. Now people need to go from doing menial manufacturing work to being able to learn to write code, or work as a social media analyst. .
We're going through a transition similar to the agricultural to mechanical revolution in the 19th/20th centuries. We no longer need laborers or people to do menial type work. We need people to study computer science, engineering, medicine, fields that are providing 21st century job opportunities. The problem is a lot of people aren't smart enough to study those fields, or people who are unwilling to. Those people are going to be in trouble!
Sure old jobs are replaced by newer jobs. But the newer jobs require a higher IQ than the past ones used to, and require a degree in the subjects I mentioned earlier. The transistor from working in the fields to working in a factory was not as painful. Now people need to go from doing menial manufacturing work to being able to learn to write code, or work as a social media analyst. .
I've been seeing a girl off on with two kids who is 23 and a CNA. She's wanting to go back to get her RN. She can probably do that but doesn't have the intellectual heft to be a software developer or medical doctor. Lots of people can't and they need something to do.
its a tough question, for sure. Aside from manufacturing, the same jobs are still there for those not in the white collar world - Construction trades, agriculture/Farming, janitorial - but the competition has increased due to immigration (legal, illegal, and refugees). This is not a political rant, it's just reality.
We're either due for some type of new industry to create an employment boom (information technology, circa 1995) or we're in for a major depression.
its a tough question, for sure. Aside from manufacturing, the same jobs are still there for those not in the white collar world - Construction trades, agriculture/Farming, janitorial - but the competition has increased due to immigration (legal, illegal, and refugees). This is not a political rant, it's just reality.
We're either due for some type of new industry to create an employment boom (information technology, circa 1995) or we're in for a major depression.
Honestly, I think we'll end up at some form of universal basic income in twenty years or sooner.
Self-driving cars are fairly close. This is going to take jobs from a massive amount of truck drivers, cabbies, couriers, and even Uber drivers. Uber already has a fleet of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh.
Manufacturing and any "resource extraction" type jobs have already seen large declines in employment largely due to better productivity through technology. Here in Appalachia, the easy to get coal is already gone, and what's left is being mined more with technology rather than simple human labor. The jobs still in the business are often increasingly sophisticated, with few locals possessing the skills to fill them.
Even some IT work is on its way out. Traditional infrastructure jobs are being consolidated as more and more moves to clouds.
Honestly, I think we'll end up at some form of universal basic income in twenty years or sooner.
Self-driving cars are fairly close. This is going to take jobs from a massive amount of truck drivers, cabbies, couriers, and even Uber drivers. Uber already has a fleet of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh.
Manufacturing and any "resource extraction" type jobs have already seen large declines in employment largely due to better productivity through technology. Here in Appalachia, the easy to get coal is already gone, and what's left is being mined more with technology rather than simple human labor. The jobs still in the business are often increasingly sophisticated, with few locals possessing the skills to fill them.
Even some IT work is on its way out. Traditional infrastructure jobs are being consolidated as more and more moves to clouds.
yep. Im in IT and I urge my staff to focus more on customer-related services as network/server type jobs will be consolidated into big cloud providers. Unless you're going to move and compete for the few roles necessary, you're going to be SOL.
universal income is an interesting topic. It almost seems inevitable. but that will give rise to some new industry b/c people arent going to be happy with their basics. They will want more and will find a way to extract money from others.
yep. Im in IT and I urge my staff to focus more on customer-related services as network/server type jobs will be consolidated into big cloud providers. Unless you're going to move and compete for the few roles necessary, you're going to be SOL.
universal income is an interesting topic. It almost seems inevitable. but that will give rise to some new industry b/c people arent going to be happy with their basics. They will want more and will find a way to extract money from others.
Some organizations still like the control of keeping it all in house but I think more businesses are becoming amenable to hosting. The catch is that all the data breaches that make the news convince firms that they can secure their own data better, even though many of these firms do not have the security expertise of the larger cloud providers. You also have negligence like 123-reg mass deletion incident back in the spring.
I worked for a tech company and we had about a hundred hosted clients when I left. There were five people on the internal infrastructure team. The user base was probably around 10,000.
The good jobs seem to be concentrating in one or two major metro areas per state, aside from the very largest states.
Some organizations still like the control of keeping it all in house but I think more businesses are becoming amenable to hosting. The catch is that all the data breaches that make the news convince firms that they can secure their own data better, even though many of these firms do not have the security expertise of the larger cloud providers. You also have negligence like 123-reg mass deletion incident back in the spring.
I worked for a tech company and we had about a hundred hosted clients when I left. There were five people on the internal infrastructure team. The user base was probably around 10,000.
The good jobs seem to be concentrating in one or two major metro areas per state, aside from the very largest states.
yep. Management and support will always be needed and of course project managers always make themselves necessary
My son is still in elementary but I'm going to steer him more towards a white collar 'trade' like electrical engineering, architecture, or construction engineering.
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