First of two parts
The term millennial, coined by authors William Strauss and Neil Howe in 1987, refers to the generation of people who were born between the 1980s and 2000s. This group of people is also called generation Y because it comes after the generation X, who are those people born between 1960s and the 1980s. Aside from these two terms, this group is also known as net generation, because they have grown up in an environment where they are exposed to digital-based technology, and generation me, because of their dominant trait of being self-centered. Last, they are also referred to as echo boomers, due to the size of the generation and its relation to the baby boomer generation, comprising of people born between 1946 and 1965. Most of these terms have something in common; they are coined to emphasize the difference between millennials and the generations before them.
According to demographers of Pew Research Center, the current global population is estimated at around 7.4 billion people. Twenty seven percent of this population is composed of the millennial generation, which is about 2 billion individuals. With this numerous number of people who are currently 22 to 37 years of age, it is unquestionable that millennials will dominate the global work force by 2020. Jeanne C. Meister and Karie Willyerd, authors of The 2020 Workplace, said in a Harvard Business Review article titled “Mentoring Millennials”: “In four years, millennials will account for nearly half the employees in the world.” In the United States alone, millennials are on the cusp of surpassing baby boomers as the nation’s largest living adult generation. Millennials are expected to outnumber the boomers by 2019, as suggested by the population projection of the US Census Bureau, as their numbers will go up to 73 million while boomers will decline to 72 million. In a matter of two years’ time, the long reign of the baby boomers in the global work force will come to an end, as the dominance of the millennials is expected as early as the start of the coming decade.
If you have noted as of now, the millennial generation does not come after the baby boomers. These two generations are actually separated by generation X, but the passage from boomers to gen xers was seen as a gradual one. I would like to emphasize the transition of boomers’ dominated to millennials’ dominated work force because the latter have always been considered as “another specie.”
To be continued.
This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail.com.
Odree Ianna M. Manalastas is a Certified Public Accountant and a BS in Accountancy graduate of the University of Santo Tomas.