Millennials had unlucky start to adult life, global wealth report says

Three people who appear to be Millennials using smartphones. (Photo By Ed Yourdon from New York City, USA – We stand so close together, but we are so far apart, CC BY-SA 2.0)

WASHINGTON — Millennials have fared less well financially than previous generations, as young people are hit early on by the repercussions of the 2008 global financial crisis, alongside rising income inequality, showed a study published Tuesday.

The millennial generation, defined by the US Census Bureau as those born between 1982 and 2000, “have had a run of bad luck”, most evidently in North America and Europe, found the Global Wealth Report published by the research arm of Swiss banking giant, Credit Suisse.

“They faced the rigors of the financial crisis and the high unemployment that followed in many countries and have also been widely hammered by high and rising house prices, rising student debt and increasing inequality,” said the report.

The report found that 90 percent of children in the United States born in 1940 had earnings greater than their parents’, but this ratio had fallen to 50 percent for children born in the 1980s.

“With the baby boomers occupying most of the top jobs and much of the housing, millennials are doing less well than their parents at the same age, especially in relation to income, home ownership,” the report added.

The millennials are not only likely to experience greater challenges in building their wealth over time, but also greater wealth inequality than previous generations, the report said.