ZURICH — Most millennials will struggle to earn more money and find better jobs than their parents despite being more highly trained, according to a study by Credit Suisse.
Defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as being those born between 1982 and 2000 — so between 35 and 17, now — millennials face tougher borrowing rules, rising home prices, less access to pensions and lower income mobility, the study said, creating a “perfect storm” holding back wealth accumulation.
“With the baby boomersoccupying most of the top jobs and much of the housing, millennials are doing less well than their parents at the same age, especially in relation to income, home ownership and other dimensions of wellbeing,” the Swiss bank wrote in its annual Global Wealth report, published on Tuesday.
As a result only high achievers and those in lucrative areas like technology and finance have better prospects than their parents.
“We expect only a minority of high achievers and those in high-demand sectors such as technology or finance to effectively overcome the ‘millennial disadvantage,”’ Credit Suisse Chairman Urs Rohner said in the report.
Overall, Credit Suisse found global wealth at mid-2017 totalled US$280 trillion, up 6.4 per cent year-on-year, the fastest pace of growth since 2012 thanks to surging equity markets and more valuable non-financial assets such as property.
However, the wealth is heavily concentrated.
Some 36 million millionaires making up less than 1 per cent of the adult population own 46 per cent of global household wealth; 70 per cent of adults — 3.5 billion people — own less than US$10,000 in assets and account for 2.7 per cent of wealth.
© Thomson Reuters 2017, with a file from Bloomberg