Wednesday, June 12, 2013 To kick off our prep work for the Global Youth Summit, the ITU hosted special one-day MILLENNIALS JAM WORKSHOP at its ICT Discover Center, with an exclusive and select group of 40 entrepreneurial young people. The objective of this unique one-day event is to crowd-source a more detailed framework for the Summit where approximately 25,000 young people will input their ideas for the post-2015 global development agenda. ITU/Rowan Farrell
A new Deloitte report indicates that the net worth of the average American aged 18-35 has plummeted 34 percent since 1996.
This new report found that millennials are paying more for education, food, transportation, and other basic needs, while their income remained steady.
This age cohort’s average net worth is now under $8,000, putting them in a stickier financial shape than previous generations.
Deloitte researchers informed The Washington Post that the study’s revelations “debunk many conventional wisdoms about the new-age consumer.”
Deloitte chief retail officer Kasey Lobaugh said “The narrative out there is that millennials are ruining everything, from breakfast cereal to weddings, but what matters to consumers today isn’t much different than it was 50 years ago.”
Lobaugh added, “Generally speaking, there have not been dramatic changes in how consumers spend their money.”
The Washington Post reports that education costs increased by 65 percent in the past decade, beating every other category.
However, discretionary spending, which includes eating out and alcohol, constitutes 11 percent of total income. This rate is the same as a decade ago.
Further, the study uncovered that “only 20 percent of consumers were meaningfully better off in 2017 than they were in 2007, with precious little income left to spend on discretionary retail.”
Americans in the age bracket of 18 to 35 put off making large purchases like homes and cars because of financial pressure and unstable sources of income.
A 2017 study shows that roughly one-third of millennials still live with their parents and are delaying marriage until they are older.
Many of these trends are not coincidences.
Millennials do live in an American political system that is over-taxed and over-bureaucratized. As a result, many young professionals have taken their talents to the sunbelt which is a more affordable region filled with more work opportunities, thus making it easier to earn a living and start a family.