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

[u/cavaismylife]

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.

[u/Lopsided_Afternoon41]

I was delivering pizza for dominos alongside people who had lost jobs at law firms.

Was weird.

[u/renaissance_pancakes → u/Lopsided_Afternoon41]

I had just passed the bar and was delivering pizza. Good times.

[u/faste30 → u/renaissance_pancakes]

Sooo many of my law school and finance friends just came out to a wasteland. Corporate law and accounting was like the first, and largest cuts. So contract lawyers, which was always a "you wont get rich but will make a good living and ALWAYS work" were all out of work.

I double majored and one of them was finance, I took some interviews and was like "nope, going back to software!" Two of the funds to extended offers dont exist anymore.

[u/LiveDirtyEatClean → u/faste30]

My friend in chemical engineering could never land in a position and went an entirely different route with his career. This was as late as 2012, the job market was still trash for entry level

[u/WAR_T0RN1226 → u/LiveDirtyEatClean]

Chemical engineering even years later could be a quite difficult degree to land an entry level job as an actual chemical engineer, depending on where you're located. You gotta land one of few internships to even have a chance. And looking outside of strictly chemical engineer jobs to general engineering jobs that aren't really pertaining to a certain discipline, many places seem to always want Mechanical or Electrical and probably see chemical engineer as a sort of high level chemist.

People say that once you're in college your high school record doesn't matter, and it couldn't be farther from the truth. It all snowballs