The Millennial Entrepreneur 

The past decade has seen the emergence of fabulous entrepreneurism among the demographic known as the Millennials.  The most superb  examples of entrepreneurism is Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook who founded the company while still in college  and in the initial public offering the social network in 2015 was worth $40 billion.

The Millennials are those born in one millennium (1982 to 2000) and grew to adulthood in the 2000’s, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA).  The paradox is despite the amazing feats of this generation, entrepreneurship overall among the millennials, is down compared with other generations. An SBA report cites that in “…2014, less than 2 percent of Millennials reported self-employment, compared with 7.6 percent for Generation X (born 1963 to 1981) and 8.3 percent for Baby Boomers (born 1944 to 1962).”

This is in part due to the relative youthfulness of the Millennials.  Statistics show that more people delve into entrepreneurship as they age and become more confident in their abilities.  Over 70-percent of the population is employed at age 23 “…and  movement into self-employment is much slower, with less than 2 percent of the population self-employed at age 23 and a peak of over 11 percent self-employment at age 53.”

Given these trends, one might assume that in ten or twenty years, entrepreneurism may increase among Millennials.  The SBA says that is not the case.  In actuality, the current statistics show that even when Millennials are much older, numbers for self-employment will be down in comparison with other demographics.  

“Rates of self-employment at each age have generally been decreasing since the Baby Boomers,” reports the SBA. “At age 30, less than 4 percent of Millennials reported self-employment in their primary job in the previous year, compared with 5.4 percent for Generation X and 6.7 percent for Baby Boomers.”

Trends may change over the years — however the outlook doesn’t suggest that.  The economic climate and other broad changes may continue to push more Millennials to seek more permanent and seemingly stable employment options.  

Fast Company reports “…Millennials aren’t starting companies the way previous generations did.”  The reasons?  According the Fast Company article, barriers such as student loans (research suggests that the median average student loan debt for millennials is $28,000) and the fact that “Millennials came of age during a recession.”  As a matter of fact, the article states that 30-percent of Millennials still live with their parents.