Study: Overqualified Millennials Languish in Low-Wage Jobs

New York City millennials' underemployment woes underscore problems plaguing the country's youngest workers.

   Young workers earnings have languished in the aftermath of the Great Recession, according to a new            study. Elaine Thompson/AP

Young workers in America's largest city make about 20 percent less than the generation before them and may fall forever short of the heights achieved by their predecessors, according to a report from the New York City Comptroller's Office.

The study, which profiled the employment trends of millennials born between 1985 and 1996, supports the widespread notion that today's entry-level employees are worse off than they were in decades past. It shows younger workers are bringing home significantly less than older generations did, even after adjusting for inflation and changes to the cost of living.

"Millennials were applying for jobs in the most difficult economic climate since the Great Depression and as a result, a growing number are now working in low-wage industries and earning less than their predecessors," Scott Stringer, the city's comptroller, said in a statement accompanying the report. "This group of young people is confronting unique economic challenges that their parents did not have to face."

The report also supports the narrative that millennials are becoming increasingly better educated but are being forced to accept positions for which they are overqualified. It found that 72 percent of New York City workers between the ages of 23 and 29 years old in 2014 had acquired at least some college education – up markedly from the 61 percent who had back in 2000.

However, "the linkage between higher education and employment has weakened" in New York City over the last several years, the report says. The share of young workers in low-wage industries like retail, food services and hospitality climbed 4 percentage points between 2000 and 2014.

But the share of such workers in mid-wage positions (like in the media, public sector, or arts and entertainment industries) and high-paying jobs (like in the fields of finance, legal services and technology) each fell by 3 percentage points over the same window.

     Real earnings of young workers in 2014 were consistently lower than what similarly aged employees              made back in 2000, according to the study. Source: Office of the New York City Comptroller

Meanwhile, the percentage of low-wage workers who have earned at least a bachelor's degree climbed from 23 percent in 2000 to 33 percent in 2014. That's particularly bad news for those who took out student loans to pay for that education in the hopes of locking down a higher-paying job – the study estimates city residents under the age of 30 collectively owed about $14 billion in student loans that year.

"This generation is at a crossroads. They worked hard, got an education and then faced roadblocks to getting a good-paying job," Stringer said. "We need to foster an economy here that helps young people get ahead, not one that holds them back."

The report's proposed solutions include a higher minimum wage, developing more affordable housing options and fine-tuning worker training programs. And although some of these types of ideas can lead to intense partisan disagreement, its overall findings mesh with the growing pool of national research suggesting America's youngest workers have gotten a disproportionately raw economic deal.

A report published last month by the left-leaning Center for American Progress found that median compensation for 30-year-olds in 2014 had dropped markedly since 2004 and was roughly equal to what that age bracket made back in 1984, "despite the facts that [today's 30-year-olds] are 50 percent more likely to have finished college and … work in an economy that is 70 percent more productive."

A separate analysis published last month by The Guardian also found that disposable incomes for millennials in the U.S. were "scarcely higher in real terms" than they were 30 years ago.

Still, while wages and job prospects haven't exactly boomed for millennial workers in recent years, other research suggests some of the group's labor market woes are overstated. Young adults' unemployment rates have returned to pre-recessionary norms, for example, and a December report published by staffers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that "while there is some truth behind the popular image of the college-educated barista, this picture is not an accurate portrayal of the typical underemployed recent college graduate."













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