Uncertainty means that nothing is predetermined. Uncertainty means that the future is yours to shape — with the force of your will, the force of your intellect, and the force of your compassion. Uncertainty is freedom.
Jim Kim, President at The World Bank speaking at Northeastern University in Boston to this year’s graduates. Via the Business Insider.
It’s voguish to dismiss the millennial generation as a narcissistic, me-driven, entitlement-presuming cohort. The millennials are, for starters, what previous generations have compelled them to be. If these young people seem unduly pre-occupied with self and money, it’s at least partly in recognition that traditional social nets like medical insurance and Social Security are running out of gas. They bear no resemblance to the financial needs imposed by our much longer lifespans. The millennial focus on self is also matched if not surpassed by an equally strong commitment to social responsibility.
Forbes contributor, Simon Graj, opens an article how Millennials Call Today’s Marketing Tune with this quote. Have a read of the full article for an interesting perspective. 

Generation Y is saving their way

New research out of Melbourne says that though most Gen Y have a short term savings plan in place, they are falling short when it comes to longer-term savings. It also notes that Gen Y gets less credit than it deserves when in relation to finances. 

To say that these phenomena are ‘just trends’ or to snark on them as the whims of privileged hipsters is to ignore this emerging bigger picture.
The Rise of the Crafty Hipster on the Daily Beast
Twentysomethings since the Boomer Generation have been making cautious decisions in the hope of avoiding midlife crises.
Via Abby Miller on the Huffington Post

Gen Y Investors More Receptive To Social Media Marketing: Cogent

According to a recent article from On Wall Street, Gen Y investors now comprise nearly 10% of all affluent investors in the US and they get their financial information much differently from older generations. Based on a report by Cogent Research, 35% of Gen Y respondents said they recalled mutual fund contacts via social media (versus 4% for non Gen Y investors). Advisors who want to tap into this lucrative source of future clients should weigh alternative approaches to connecting – social media platforms, company websites or blogs are recommended. 

Millennials Are Redefining Work, Corporations Should Take Advantage

Recent college graduate Pierre Gergis shares some insight into Millennials and corporate adaptability on Forbes

The author argues that senior corporate leadership needs to reevaluate how it is integrating Millennial new hires. As digital natives, Gen Y was immersed in web ‘language’ at a young age, ensuring adaptability to new scenarios, regardless of specific experience and increasing the likelihood of eloquence when it comes to treating these systems and environments for what they are: tools for building and creating. Most of Millennials  experience and learnings can no longer be easily reflected on a resume; however, the forward-thinking insight, flexibility and almost reckless abandon with which Millennials approach work, make it possible to create brands and technologies that challenge and overshadow decades old institutions.

Thanks to 8095er Ashley Pollard for the analysis!

'Lost generation' fears for Europe's youth as unemployment soars across eurozone and leaves more than 19 million without jobs

According to the Daily Mail, for the first time since the single currency was created in 1999, the unemployment rate has hit 12% in the eurozone (compared with 7.7% in Britain). The numbers are even bleaker for those under 25 – 58% in Greece, 56% in Spain, 38% in Portugal and Italy and 24% in the eurozone as a whole. Officials say that the ‘economic and social consequences of high unemployment continue to represent one of the most significant threats to the future of the eurozone’ and that ‘urgent action is required to avoid the creation of a lost generation of young people who have been denied access to work’. 

Thanks to 8095er Ashley Pollard for the analysis!

3 Reasons 30-Somethings Are Accumulating Less Wealth Than Their Parents

According to a recent study, “Lost Generations? Wealth Building among Young Americans”, the average wealth of American households doubled over the last quarter century, the average wealth of people ages 29-37 had fallen by 21% from 1983 to 2010. Reasons include the foreclosure crisis, ballooning student debts and a decline in business equity and other assets. The author suggest that young people can start making savings automatic and urges policymakers to focus more attention on wealth building among younger households and other low-wealth groups. 

Notably, it isn’t all bad news. Read more over on The Atlantic

Are Millennials Better Activists Than Baby Boomers?

Author David Burstein argues that while Boomers helped produced long-lasting change with the passage of the civil rights and the end to the war in Vietnam, today’s millennial activism is more powerful, more suited for the time and more sustainable. Through the use of technology, creation of organizations and businesses to implement solutions to pressing national issues and the use of consumer power to push companies to be more socially responsible, Millennials have created a unique approach to effecting change. 

Weigh in with your thoughts over on PolicyMic

Why Your Kid Can't Get a Job

“While the workplace has evolved over the last several years, it is not adapting quickly enough for Millennials; according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, one out of every two millennials is either unemployed or under-employed." 

Forbes contributor Michael S. Malone looks at how the job market has evolved for the Millennial workforce. 

Gen Yers are impatient to change the world and social entrepreneurship gives them an outlet to do so. Social entrepreneurship resonates with some of the typical values that characterize Gen Y: collaboration, accessibility, sustainability, globalization and self-expression.

What Worries Millennials? According to Onesixtyfourth’s CultureQ Research: Academic Achievement, Personal Accomplishment and the Global Economy

According to CultureQ research, Millennials have been incorrectly portrayed as lazy and instead, actually list academic success, personal fulfillment and the global economy as important issues in their lives. Ms. Bahr Thompson, Founding Partner of Onesixtyfourth, suggests the following strategies for brands and marketers to relate to millennial consumers:

Inspire confidence in the future

Be goal oriented

Deliver consistently

Give over control

Be bigger than your product

See the full press release here: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1146466

Insights on Millennials, shopping and social interactions from Young Entrepreneur (sister site of Entrepreneur).
Full article here: http://bit.ly/155GLEQ

Insights on Millennials, shopping and social interactions from Young Entrepreneur (sister site of Entrepreneur).

Full article here: http://bit.ly/155GLEQ

VIMN Insights shared some Millennial research and trends for 2013. What do you think? Any big surprises here?
Read more: The Next Normal: BE VIACOM Talking Shop

VIMN Insights shared some Millennial research and trends for 2013. What do you think? Any big surprises here?

Read more: The Next Normal: BE VIACOM Talking Shop