Gen Y Now: Millennials and the Evolution of Leadership, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER FIVERECESSION GENERATION

It is not hard to imagine that the Great Recession has had a significant impact on Gen Y. It is safe to say the world has not seen an economic challenge of this magnitude since the Great Depression. It is also safe to say in both cases these financial markets had a profound effect on the young folks who began their lives in the midst of such challenges. The Depression molded the Greatest Generation and the Recession will mold Gen Y.

The full impact of the Great Recession will not be known for quite some time. Just like the Greatest Generation, it will take many years for us to understand all of the ramifications of the Recession on Gen Y. We will present this chapter in three different sections. First, we’ll look at the statistics and try to make sense of the numbers. Next, we’ll look at how Gen Y has responded. Finally, we’ll offer our opinions and theories on how this will affect Gen Y and how you, as business leaders, can react.

There will be one over-riding theme in this chapter. Just like the Great Depression did not break the Greatest Generation, the Great Recession has not broken Gen Y. We are not suggesting that this puts both generations on par with one another (after all, there was this thing called World War II that was also a part of the Greatest Generation). What we do hope to point out, though, is that these two situations in many ways brought about similar reactions and generational responses.

Some of the Numbers

The first Gen ...