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The stereotype is that older people resist change while younger people embrace it. Resistance to change has nothing to do with age; it has to do with how much you stand to gain or lose as a result of the change. Loyalty depends on context. It is said that younger generations are not as loyal to their organizations as older workers. But the research shows, for example, that the amount of time a worker puts in each day has more to do with his or her level in the organization than with age.
The higher the level, the more hours worked. Everyone wants to learn. Learning and development were among the issues brought up most frequently by people of all generations. Everyone wants to learn and to ensure they have the training to do their job well. According to the research, everyone wants to know how they are doing and to learn how they can do better.
Print this page Tell-A-Colleague. To lenders, student loan debt has traditionally signaled that an individual had a college degree that increased earning potential. This is why, until recently, year-olds with student loan debt were also more likely to have auto and home debt than those without student loan debt.
That trend has changed in recent years.
Now, year-olds with student loan debt are less likely than their student loan debt-free peers to have a mortgage or auto loan. Related to this situation has been the rise in student default rates.
As shown in figure 5, overall default rates on student loans after three years is just over 11 percent, although the ranges by school type vary considerably. Poor job prospects, as well as high levels of student debt, mean that a sizable portion of the Millennial generation has started out with distinct disadvantages.
The Great Recession hit younger workers particularly hard. At its worst in October , when overall unemployment hit Although unemployment rates among Millennials have improved since then, they remain high today at 9. The unemployment rate for the and-older group was 3. The combination of high unemployment, high student loan debt, and the bursting of the housing bubble caused homeownership rates to fall even more sharply since for those under 35 years of age than among the population as a whole figure 6.
For example, the percentage of to year-olds living with their parents went up to States with the highest current proportions of Millennials aged 20—34 in are shown in figure 7. States with large military bases also have higher concentrations of Millennials. Many Millennials wish to relocate, and the time after graduating from college has traditionally been a common time for Americans to move. Since , Millennials have continued to move less than prior generations did at similar ages.
In contrast, migration among senior citizens has almost recovered to pre-recession levels. There is no doubt that the Great Recession affected households headed by Millennials. For example, incomes of households headed by Millennials fell after , and as a result, the cohort has hesitated to take on large amounts of debt.
However, these trends are not limited to Millennial-led households. Once they form households, Millennials display economic behavior similar to other cohorts. We examine these economic trends in more detail below. Comparing real income from SCF for households age 35 and under reveals that these households experienced the sharpest decline in median income between and 16 percent , but they did only slightly worse than households headed by to year-olds figure 8.
When we focus in on the last three years, we find an interesting pattern. Income inequality for the under cohort fell during —, in contrast to the pattern among all US households. The decline in the share of mortgages among households in the under cohort is in line with a lower preference for debt among this cohort and some others 35—year-olds and 45—year-olds.
Indeed, the Great Recession, with its detrimental impact on wealth and income, brought down both the ability and the inclination to take on debt among households headed by Millennials. Between and , the share of households in the under cohort holding any form of debt fell by 6.
During the same period, the median value of household debt also fell by the greatest amount among the under cohort 23 percent. Notably, with the economy in recovery since , debt levels have stabilized for some cohorts including the under cohort and risen for others.
In addition to mortgages, vehicle loans fell after among households headed by Millennials. The proportion of households in the under cohort holding vehicle debt fell by Since , however, this proportion has increased somewhat among the under cohort, similar to the trend among some other cohorts. Credit card debt has also decreased since among those under 35—but it would be wrong to say that this decline is a purely post trend. The share of households in the under cohort holding credit card debt has been declining steadily since Data on household finances from SCF add some nuance to these findings, showing that, while the percentage of those under 35 who own vehicles is indeed smaller than the comparable percentage among older cohorts, car ownership among the under cohort is by no means dead.
For example, although the share of households with a vehicle as an asset among the under cohort fell by six percentage points between and , this percentage has recovered since then figure For further information on vehicle ownership among different generations, view our interactive version of figure In the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, equities lost much of their popularity.
Nevertheless, the share of households in the under cohort that held stocks as an asset has remained fairly stable since figure This contrasts somewhat with the pattern for other age groups, among whom equity ownership has been more volatile.
Generational Differences Chart. Traditionalists. Baby Boomers. Generation X. Millennials. Birth Years. (). . The problem was that the speaker came from the baby boomer generation, but his One of the major differences between the oldest and youngest of these.
Also, between and , the value of stock holdings both direct and indirect as a percentage of total financial assets declined for all households. But falling equity prices had as much to do with this as did changes in household stock holdings.
Moreover, since , the value of stocks as a percentage of total financial assets has recovered among all households, including those headed by Millennials figure Most of the evidence for perceived higher Millennial turnover rates appears to be a misinterpretation of age effects. As was the case with Boomers and Gen Xers, young people today tend to switch jobs more often than older workers, particularly before they settle down and have kids. Many labor market economists believe that there are two primary determinants of how often employees switch jobs: When the economy is growing, more jobs are available, and more workers of all ages are willing to take a chance and jump to another job.
When the economy is shrinking, the opposite is true, and workers of all ages tend to hang on to the job they have. Figure 13 shows age-specific turnover rates for all US private-sector workers at three time points: Particularly instructive is the portion of the x-axis showing turnover rates for workers aged 19 to In , this age cohort was made up of Generation Xers.
In , this same age group was made up of Millennials. That might have flown many years ago when the speaker was a young man, she says, but: The problem was that the speaker came from the baby boomer generation, but his audience was part of the millennial and younger generations, which have an entirely different set of values.
For purposes of illustrating her point and explaining how different generations came to be, Kennedy uses these four groups as reference points for most of the workforce:. One of the major differences between the oldest and youngest of these groups is that when baby boomers were entering the workforce, they were driven by the need to make money or, like with the speaker at the insurance company, have a career.
Millennials are driven by principles and the need for self-satisfaction.
They do not want more things. When it comes to the workplace, the two are very different in how they view getting things done. Boomers, for example, have been taught to take a team approach.
This is because their upbringing was influenced by parents who went through World War II—parents who looked to the U. Even baby boomers today have learned there are flaws in the idea that everything is best done through teamwork. Another great difference is how important personal values and the freedom to express those values are in the workplace. Older workers tend to participate in community service for its social and professional benefits so they join organizations such as the local Rotary or professional organizations, she says. Does he or she support the Salvation Army, participate in Big Brothers and Sisters, or stand up for environmental causes?
The larger question today is not so much what each generation represents but how the different generations interact.
This is because the boomers are the ones retiring or about to retire and the older generations are also the ones doing the hiring and promoting. The younger people are choosing a field or deciding whether to stay with a job and seek upward mobility or go to another employer. She suggests the industry start by appealing at the junior high level.
They need to start early because young people need to see how a professional can get from Point A to Point B with a career in industry or manufacturing. Kennedy also says that too often, she sees industry technical professionals who are talking to young people who almost apologize because the work is hard or repetitive.