Generation Y (born 1985 to 2004) is the big story for 2012-and the years ahead.
Generation Y is the biggest generation in the history of the United States. They out-number the Boomers (born 1945 to 1964) by about 4 million. There are about 83 million of them. They are flooding the labor force and charging head-on into an employer’s market. This means that the public and private sectors will be able to hire the best young workers the labor market has offered in decades. The millions of Generation Y young people who don’t get hired will open their own businesses out of necessity because they have to eat. This bodes very well for our nation.
New 2012 Generation Y hires should be a refreshing contrast to the entitled Generation X (born 1965 to 1984) hires of years past. Remember for every ten jobs left behind by the Boomers there were only eight Gen X’ers and thus the entitled attitude. Hard work will truly be a condition of employment for Y. Look for Generation Y to be so relieved that they got hired that little else will matter. Generation Y will put pressure on Generation X to perform or get out of the way. It’s a whole new dynamic in the US workforce. Baby Boomers will love Generation Y’s spunk and ambition.
In 2012 Generation Y men will continue to discover the acute unmet demand for skilled technical careers that do not require a college degree. This explains the huge and growing 60/40 college enrollment imbalance favoring women. Even with nearly 9% unemployment nationally, manufacturing jobs have gone begging because of the resurgence of this sector and the absence of skilled labor.
The average age we marry for the first time in the United States is 26 years old, so in 2012 Generation Y will begin to find mates and start to marry at record levels and start households. They will then start a Baby Boom all their own. Consumption of related products will spike. The United States is the only Western culture and the only industrialized nation in the world that is having children at above replacement level fertility of 2.2 children per couple. This ensures a viable labor force until further notice, unlike China that has committed demographic suicide with their “One Child Only Policy”. This arcane policy has “prevented” 400 million live births under 31 years old and reduced their future labor force to an unsustainable level.
In 2012 Generation Y’s presence will be begin to be felt by the United States’ private shared- risk health insurance model. Generation Y (now aged 8 to 27 years old) will begin to pay into the system but not use many of the health services because they are young and healthy. This will begin to off-set the problems created by the diminutive Generation X (now 28 to 47 years old) who did not have the critical mass to pay into the system at a level that would compensate for the Boomer’s over utilization of health services. Boomers are now 48 to 67 years old. Over time Generation Y should be able to remedy the health care crisis without Obama-care.