There is a general narrative that younger generation are doing worse then older generations. When a narrative is “common knowledge” it is worth investigating if it is true or not. For the 35-44 year age range Kevin Drum has done just that in his post The (not kids anymore) are doing alright (3/2/2023). He has four graphs one of which is copied here. Some facts:
However, right now their unemployment rate is 2.6%, as low as it’s ever been.
Full-time workers are being paid more today than full-time workers of 20 years ago.
As with the full-time chart, annual earnings are higher now for 35-44 year-olds than they were 20 years ago.
This is not to say everything is perfect, but it does provide evidence that life isn’t that bad for the 35-44 cohort. The question then is why does this narrative exist? The frustrating part here is this data is easily available at the BLS. Maybe journalist could take the time to look up a few facts before they make statements.
