NEW YORK–A new analysis that pulls together a number of different data points shows the financial challenges to the Millennial generation as compared to other generations.
Assembled by Axiom, the data points include:
By the numbers: Millennial homeownership is eight percentage points lower than previous generations at this age. Student debt is at $1.5 trillion, with defaults rising. Just 37% of Americans under 35 owned stocks last year, vs. 55% in 2001.
The big picture: "The net worth of the average Millennial household is 40 percent lower than for Gen X households in 2001 and 20% lower than for Baby Boomers’ households at the end of the 1980s," notes Annie Lowrey in The Atlantic.
Between the lines: "The generation unlucky enough to enter the labor market in a recession suffers 'significant' earnings losses that take years and years to rebound," Lowrey reports.
"As of 2014, Millennial men were earning no more than Gen X men were when they were the same age, and 10 percent less than Baby Boomers,” according to a Federal Reserve study. Millennial women were earning less than Gen X women."
Why It Matters
What does any of that matter? According to the Axiom.com analysis, “The human costs are huge, leading to delayed family formation and more people living a paycheck away from disaster.”
Among the implications:
The parents of Millennials — the Boomers — are hurtling into retirement with children who may be less financially able to help.
The children of Millennials — Generation Alpha — will almost certainly face the prospect of taking on even more student debt, with parents less able to help, absent a major public policy shift, Axiom reported.
And Millennials themselves are often stuck living in high-cost cities to get jobs that pay enough to tackle their loans
The Axiom analysis concluded by noting all this is taking place “during a booming economy.”