In the labor market, the entitled millennial is rare — mostly because those demanding and precocious upstarts don’t exist.
“Far from demanding that employers adjust to their needs, many young people have bent over backwards to persuade anyone to give them a foothold in the [labor] market,” Sarah O’Connor writes in the Financial Times.
Entering the labor force, millennials aren’t pelted with job offers. The seller’s market for labor, once robust, has become the buyer’s market. Millennials aren’t so demanding because they’re worried about finding any job, let alone one that is career-building.
That’s the paradox of being the richest generation: millennials get castigated as being lazy, entitled, and ungrateful — but have the worst job market in decades. Baby boomers have been content to berate from afar, but ignore the unpleasant reality that millennials will pay for the boomers’s entitlements.
For millennials and baby boomers, more confidence when job hunting would help. Reaching more during salary negotiations will earn millennials more and build their savings. Boomers will benefit from higher productivity and more capital floating around in banks available for investment.
With millennials pushing 83 million members and 25 percent of the American population, it’s hard to paint in broad strokes. Aside from higher levels of student debt and unemployment — along with underemployment — not a lot unites the generation.
For now, however, until millennials negotiate for higher salaries or other employment perks, that extra cash stays in the hands of employers.
