I was just enjoying a little light reading: on a sunny afternoon: “The Changing Economics and Demographics of Young Adulthood: 1975–2016.” from the US Census Office. Who taught Vistage Chairs how fun this was? That would be Michael Milken who spoke to every Vistage International Chair conference in the early 2000’s, Michael Milken would talk about the demographics internationally and how that would affect our economic success in various sectors of the US economy. He doubled down on the value of increased population by birth and /or by immigration as a predictor of long term growth in the US economy. Milken said that having a younger workforce would support the old folks while driving innovation that would increase productivity. With that in mind, reading this report points to another area of disruption – in traditional thinking.
These points are particularly striking:
One in three millennials lives with their parents. 25% of young people who live with their parents do not work or go to school. How they define adulthood is: finishing school and being gainfully employed, For reference, in 1975, leaving home, working, marrying and having children was the definition of adulthood. Where in 1975 45% of 25-34 year olds met all 4 criteria for adulthood, and the next 22% met 3 -they did not work (many were women home with children). In 2015 only 24% met all 4 criteria and the next 25% had left home and were gainfully employed- not married and no children.
It turns out by 45 they will have caught up on the marrying and children piece.
So what does the data mean?
There is more diversity in living arrangements. There will be more diversity in wealth accumulation. Probably, small family sizes. The educated will have greater incomes than the high school graduates. And, so much more to think about.
What pops up for you? How does this affect your workforce, your future customers, how you sell your product or services going forward? What does the data mean to you?
graph courtesy of bixabay.com