Millennials and boomers: Pandemic pain, by the generation

CINCINNATI (AP) — Millennials, you're taking a big hit — again. And you're not OK, either, boomers.

Sometimes at odds, America's two largest generations now have something to agree on: The coronavirus pandemic has smacked many of them at a pivotal time in their lives.

For baby boomers, named for the post-World War II surge of births, that means those who are retired or are nearing retirement are seeing their 401(k) accounts and IRAs looking unreliable while their health is at high risk.

Millennials, who became young adults in this century, are getting socked again just as they were beginning to recover after what a Census researcher found were the Great Recession's hardest hits to jobs and pay.

“The long-lasting effects of the Great Recession on millennials, that was kind of scarring,” said Gray Kimbrough, a millennial and an economist at American University in Washington. “And now when the economy had finally clawed back to where we were before the Great Recession, then this hit at a particularly bad time as well for millennials in particular.”

Another factor: Millennials had been the most diverse generation, and the pandemic has hurt Black people and Latinos disproportionately both in health and financially. “The pandemic has shined a spotlight on massive inequality by race, ethnicity and gender,” said Christian Weller, a professor of public policy at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

This year has highlighted America's generation gaps, especially between the two largest generations. Both have been stereotyped as being self-absorbed — millennials as selfie-obsessed avocado toast addicts, boomers for their oversized “mcmansions” and self-indulgence. And both are feeling pandemic pain, though in different ways.

“When the generations...