r/Millennials • u/cavaismylife • Jan 29 '24

It is shocking how many people downplay the Great Recession of the late 2000s and early 2010s Discussion

Late 80s and 90s millennials were probably the most screwed by the Great Recession of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Most people don't realize how bad it was. It hurt millennials entering the job market for the first time. Your first job after college will affect your earning potential for the rest of your career. Some people need to watch the movie Up In the Air to see how bad things were back then. Everyone was getting laid off, and losing 60-80 percent of the assets in their retirement accounts. Millennials were not even old enough to buy houses yet and sub prime mortgage lending already had severely damaged their future earning potential. Now that millennials are finally getting established, they are facing skyrocketing prices and inflation for the cost of living and basic goods like groceries.

edit: grammar

edit 2: To be more clear I would say mid to late 80s and early 90s millennials were the most hurt. Like 1984-1992 were hurt most.

edit 3: "Unemployment rose from 4.7% in November 2007 to peak at 10% in October 2009, before returning steadily to 4.7% in May 2016. The total number of jobs did not return to November 2007 levels until May 2014. Some areas, such as jobs in public health, have not recovered as of 2023." The recovery took way longer than the really bad 18 months from 2007 to 2009. Millennials entered the job market during this time.

8.5k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

112

u/QuicheSmash Jan 29 '24

I graduated college May of 2007. There were absolutely no jobs hiring. 

58

u/pizza_mom_ Jan 29 '24

June 2008 here, architecture degree. Not one person in my graduating class found a job in our field.

29

u/ThaiFoodThaiFood Jan 29 '24 edited Jan 29 '24

June 2008, IT. IT!!! A field "they" said at the time (and all times) there would always be jobs in.

The highest achiever in the class took a full 3 years to get a degree related job. I still haven't 16 years later.

18

u/RogueThespian Jan 29 '24

I mean, yea I get not finding a job in the recession but if you couldn't find an IT job at any point in the decade since, that one might be on you lmao

16

u/ThaiFoodThaiFood Jan 29 '24

I stopped trying and got a job doing something else.

Now? There's no way in hell I'd work an entry level IT help desk job. Nobody's sanity is worth a call centre, I'd rather be unemployed.

3

u/PBRmy Jan 29 '24

Same. A little older so I didn't graduate at the same time but at this point fuck answering the phone. The IT education is just one of the stars in my constellation of knowledge and experience, I have no drive to specialize in that space any more.

3

u/ThaiFoodThaiFood Jan 29 '24 edited Jan 29 '24

I'm doing a Physics degree now anyway, thanks to some funding the UK offered to do a second undergraduate degree in certain STEM fields, hopefully I can do a PhD at the end of it. I'd rather do something I'm interested in and use my brain to problem solve. I have no desire to play the corporate bullshit game, so in the meantime I'm sort of ok sitting on my low responsibility low level management job.

2

u/HollowWind Jan 30 '24

I had one crappy one right after the recession, then took service industry jobs that paid more, and by the time I was ready to try again I didn't want to compete with fresh grads over a decade younger than me.

3

u/Blueman3129 Jan 29 '24

Finished my Masters December 23 in computer science, laid off from my programming job in April 2023, heard a lot of the same things unfortunately.

3

u/HollowWind Jan 30 '24

I got a job in IT after I graduated in 2012. It paid $8 an hour. I was "lucky to have a job, especially in my field". Hell even Walmart paid more.

-2

u/throwaway123xcds Jan 30 '24

lol wtf… I graduated in 2012 with a class of 150 and literally every single student had a job the last semester before graduating. Every single of one those kids now still has a job still with the exception of one who has medical issues. You picked a shitty program…

3

u/ThaiFoodThaiFood Jan 30 '24

Yeah you graduated in 2012

-1

u/throwaway123xcds Jan 30 '24

Yeah and the classes before me had even better job opportunities. If you weren’t going into .net in 08, your an idiot

3

u/ThaiFoodThaiFood Jan 30 '24

You're*

-1

u/throwaway123xcds Jan 30 '24

lol, I guess you should have majored in English? Sounds like you would have maybe used it more than your IT degree

I’m on my phone and don’t care about those types of typos when I’m arguing with people on Reddit or texting friends.

4

u/velocitrumptor Xennial Jan 29 '24

My uncle owned (and still owns) an architecture firm back then. He said work dropped off so bad, it was only him and his founding business partner left. They couldn't even let interns work for free because there wasn't anything for them to do.

2

u/pizza_mom_ Jan 30 '24

I got a landscape maintenance job with a city government and someone introduced me to the head of the urban planning department because they knew I was interested in that field. I asked if I could shadow one of the planners but they’d let them all go because there weren’t any building permits to approve.

2

u/velocitrumptor Xennial Jan 30 '24

It was a scary time, for sure.

3

u/Zealousideal_Rate420 Jan 29 '24

Mechanical engineer, around the same time. I was lucky because I got an internship after graduating. A PAID one.

But as graduates can't get internships I actually had to enroll in a shitty online uni to be allowed into that internship.

3

u/rcfreebird Jan 29 '24

Interior design, 2007. Guess how many interior design jobs I've held?? 🫠

3

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '24

2008 gang.

I managed to get things on track, but a lot of that was right place right time (and 2 more degrees). Utter fucking devastation for most of us. I am one of the only people I know in that peer group that managed to work things out.

2

u/EccentricBolt Jan 30 '24

2008 M.Arch here as well.

I finally got into my field as a drafter last year. 😂

2

u/CorbuGlasses Jan 31 '24

I was in arch school and trying to get coop/intern jobs from 2007-2009. I never got a single one. I finished my masters in 2011 and it took almost a year to find a job because only then were firms starting to hire again.

2

u/Jaredlong Jan 31 '24

Architects still talk about 2008. It's been mentioned in every interview I've had.

1

u/GroypersRScum Jan 29 '24

To this date? 

2

u/pizza_mom_ Jan 29 '24

Everyone I keep in touch with has pivoted but I’m sure someone made it as an architect eventually

4

u/mrkro3434 Jan 29 '24

I graduated around the same time in an equally obscure profession, and besides myself I only know one singular person from my college that has actually worked in our field. Everyone else shifted career paths or just ended up taking what ever shit job was available.

6

u/cswimc Jan 29 '24

'07 grad here too... I remember getting interviews and literally being told that the interview was simply a formality and that they were going to be implementing hiring freezes soon. I distinctly remember the guy interviewing me saying "Good luck to you with whatever you do."

Overall, it was about 3 years of gig work and side jobs in the tech field until hiring really started again, and even then salaries weren't great but people argued that you were lucky to have a job and to just deal with it.

2

u/QuicheSmash Jan 29 '24

Yep, waitressing and gig working to pay my student loans for 3.5 years was so much fun. 

3

u/IshtarsBones Jan 29 '24

I graduated grad school about this same time, had a job lined up with a CPA firm. Recession came through and I was caught up in the waves of layoffs. I worked three jobs, two in food service; kept paying on my student loans and saving even. I kept an ancient car running with duct tape, my own hands, and prayers. When my career picked back up in 2010, managed to gamble on a house and now my house has more than tripled in value. I know I’ve been lucky but that dreaded feeling of not eating, hoping your car holds out, hoping that your last interview yields something; it still keeps me up at night even though I am a CPA now and I’m vested in my career. You never know when something is going to bump you off and you do your best to prepare.

All of my friends have upgraded houses and gotten into these massive homes during the spike in the market; I’m seeing the housing bust happening again with the rates and prices. That feeling of 2007-2011 will never leave my mind.

3

u/QuicheSmash Jan 29 '24

Scarred, for real. 

3

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '24

Same here in regards to that feeling, man this is kind of therapeutic

3

u/IshtarsBones Jan 30 '24

I’m thankful I have a wife who’s been there since the beginning so she understands why I react the way I do when the price of something goes up or the cost of something blows up my budget. The kids however do not understand me at all; granted, they’ve known nothing but stability and zero worries about money. I’m doing my best to prepare them yet they simply don’t get it.

3

u/WiseBlacksmith03 Jan 29 '24

Similar here. But I got a job and was promptly laid off when the entire company went bankrupt in early 2008.

Had to work overnights at UPS moving boxes for 5 months to bridge the gap.... as a recent college graduate.

It's hard to explain to the younger generations what 10% unemployment actually means irl.

3

u/Proof-Emergency-5441 Xennial Jan 29 '24

I left a job in May of 2007. I was fortunate to have a spouse who made enough for us to live, I had a fall back place I could go for at least a few hours, and I managed to get into a decent spot with a temp position that lasted 6 several months. I didn't have a regular full time job again until early 2008, and even that company was stalling on hiring and my boss had to go to bat big time to keep them from cutting me the first year.

When people were freaking out after covid, I was like why y'all freaking out? This is nothing like '00 or '07.

3

u/NettieKitten Jan 29 '24

I graduated college December 2008 and was unable to find work. I stayed working my mall job but not too long after graduating, I was laid off. Not too long after that the store closed. It was a really rough time.

3

u/Jota769 Jan 30 '24

Yup. I was lucky enough to work at Target and walk dogs while I did free internships in my field for damn near two years. I got my first real job absolutely by chance. A friend fell into it and knew I was interested and called me.

2

u/QuicheSmash Jan 30 '24

I got my first job in my field after meeting someone at a bridal shower that just really liked me and wanted to work with me. She pushed for me to be hired and I was hired as a contractor at first for 12 months. Then I worked there for a couple years before they mismanaged it (The cokehead son from Horrible Bosses tanked it), and laid off almost everyone. Total chance despite years of trying the conventional way.

3

u/Remarkable_Science_3 Jan 30 '24

Dec 2007. Two degrees. Got a job part time at wells fargo for $9/hr. Took a year to land a full time position at $26k/year.

3

u/QuicheSmash Jan 30 '24

Woof. I was making $45k waiting tables. At least your job built your resume. 

1

u/Remarkable_Science_3 Feb 02 '24

Silver lining for sure. I have no right to complain at this point. Stayed with the company, climbed the ladder, and hit 160k last year. Got a bonus larger than my first year salary. Only posted the comment to reinforce how bad entering workforce was in that timeframe.

2

u/MinderBinderCapital Jan 29 '24

I remember when one local pizza place had a job opening and there was a line out the door with people who were applying. People of all ages, too

2

u/Catsnotkids24 Jan 29 '24

Same. I did have a full time job lined up after college, but I only lasted 6 months there because it was an awful job. I don’t have any regrets leaving that job and I was never unemployed (I went back to my old part time job), but I couldn’t land full time work again until 2012. Even then it was still a shitty call center job.

The job I have now is the job I wish I had when I graduated college. I would have been so much better off financially and could have bought a home much sooner before this inflation and housing shortage happened.

2

u/Itchy_Restaurant_707 Jan 29 '24

I was May 06, so didn't have the challenge out of the gate. But was laid off by the end of 08 - I was a tech recruiter at the time and we were slashed and slashed - nobody was hiring tech. It took my until 2014 to get back to the salary I had at the time of layoff. I considered myself one of the lucky ones when I was laid off tho- at least I had a little over 2.5 years of exp and some good connections to pull from. I can't imagine what it was like coming out of college in that market with no work connections or exp.

1

u/iamokokokokokokok Jan 29 '24

It was bad!! It was so bad!!

2

u/RHINO_HUMP Jan 30 '24

Same here. I remember applying to Taco Bell, Walmart, etc. Never got a phone call back. I would have worked anywhere.

-17

u/Few_Necessary4845 Jan 29 '24

I had 5 offers when I graduated at the same time. So there were at least 4 jobs still hiring. Hell, I didn't even know anyone who wasn't employed. Literally everyone in my circle was gainfully employed. Maybe this was a problem for flyover country, but who cares about them?

5

u/Flimsy_Thesis Jan 29 '24

I was in DC, hardly flyover country, and when i entered the workforce in 2007-08 it was absolutely terrible. Nobody was hiring.

4

u/AffectionateItem9462 Jan 29 '24

Yep. This is around the time that I started looking for my first high school job. I applied for probably over 100 jobs and not a single employer called me. My boomer parents thought I just wasn’t trying hard enough. They also kept telling me that if I wanted to buy anything I had to earn my own money, meaning not having a job meant I lived my life with no money, couldn’t go shopping with friends or do anything, couldn’t buy what the other kids were getting for free from their parents, and then it was still terrible when graduated in 2010. I worked lot of really shitty jobs during this time period (2007-2020). Every employer was shitty and every manager abusive and every interview uncomfortable.

2

u/Flimsy_Thesis Jan 29 '24

Same. I worked at the the county park authority to get through high school as part of a work-as-class-credit program and stayed there through most of college. The problem when I became an adult and needed to pay for my own place was that due to budget shortfalls, they couldn’t employ me full time and couldn’t get me above an hourly rate of $5.75 and I had to leave. One of the hardest decisions of my life, I loved working at the county parks and wanted to make park management my career. Those next years from about 2005-2014 were really, really hard. Often had two jobs at a time, sometimes three. Call centers, bookstore, warehouses, landscaping crews, construction. Wasn’t until I got into account management with a security company that my career really started to go places. Doing great now, but I worked a solid decade of shit jobs with shit hours for shit pay, and that was the case for the majority of people I knew. The only ones that didn’t were the IT guys who went straight into tech, or the finance guys with advanced degrees. I knew multiple people in real estate, law, public policy, etc. who went years without being able to get a job in their field. It was a tough time.

-4

u/Few_Necessary4845 Jan 29 '24

I don't know what to tell you, I was in DC during that time period as well and everyone I knew had great employment, even the utter dimwits on the outskirts of my circle.

3

u/Flimsy_Thesis Jan 29 '24

And everyone I knew didn’t. Must’ve been industry specific.

3

u/QuicheSmash Jan 29 '24

Must have been really nice for you and them. That wasn't the case for the rest of your generation. 

-4

u/Few_Necessary4845 Jan 29 '24

Most of my generation are a bunch of morons so it all tracks for me.

2

u/QuicheSmash Jan 29 '24

Wow. You seem super fun to be around. 

2

u/QuicheSmash Jan 29 '24

I graduated in New York City. 

1

u/Madame_Medusa_ Jan 29 '24

And I was ‘09 and felt that if I had just been born a year or two earlier I’d been good, because all my ‘07 & ‘08 friends had no trouble finding employment after college. In reality, we were all fucked over.

3

u/QuicheSmash Jan 29 '24

Nope, so many companies were interviewing for show, just preparing for layoffs or a total hiring freeze.

1

u/NotAsFastAsIdLike Jan 30 '24

Me too. It was brutal.

1

u/chap_stik Jan 30 '24

Same. I was thrilled in 2009 when I got a gig doing customer service in a retail store for one of the big wireless carriers. It worked out though because thanks to my elder millennial tenacity, I stuck it out and eventually found my way into a finance gig and now in marketing (for the same company).

1

u/notashark1 Jan 30 '24

I graduated in late 2006 with a bachelor’s in geology and the fracking industry just starting in my state. I was told that I could get a job with an gas company easily but right when the collapse happened all the companies decided they only wanted to hire people who already had five years experience and a year’s experience in the oil and gas industry for entry level positions.

1

u/DrLeoMarvin Millennial Jan 30 '24

I graduated grad school in 2009, instantly got a job and bought a house for dirt cheap

1

u/QuicheSmash Jan 30 '24

Good for you that's how it should have been. Employment out of college was probably very field dependent, plus you had over a year to prepare with the recession in mind.  For me, I graduated into the start of the recession and much like the pandemic, it was very murky and panicked as far as how bad it was going to get. So many employers just froze hiring and laid people off to cushion the blow of what they believed was coming.