A closer look
Graduating during a financial apocalypse guarantees you will mathematically never catch up to the wealth of older generations. Economists track a phenomenon known as 'labor market scarring,' which shows that workers who enter the job market during deep recessions suffer permanent, compounding wage depression. Because they start at lower salaries and miss crucial early-career promotions, their lifetime earning trajectory is permanently lowered. Even decades later, a millennial who graduated right after the Lehman Brothers collapse still earns less than a statistically identical peer who graduated in a boom.
