New data from the Pew Research Center shows more than one in three American workers today are millennials, making them the largest generation in the U.S. workforce.
Last year, the millennial labor force surpassed that of the baby boomer generation, which has declined as many individuals reach retirement. As of the first quarter of this year, the 53.5 million strong millennial workforce has rapidly increased to rates higher than that of Generation X.
Richard Fry, who is a senior researcher at Pew Research Center, says that immigration to the U.S. and an increasing number of individuals who are graduating college will continue to disproportionately grow the number of millennials within the job market.
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In addition to the millennial population continuing to surpass that of other generations in the the labor market, it should also be noted that millennials are already projected to surpass baby boomers this year to become the nation’s largest living generation.
With immigrants coming to the U.S. disproportionately in their younger working years and with more baby boomers growing older in their working years, the size of the boomer workforce will continue to shrink; meanwhile, millennials will continue to take over the labor market.