A new study by Prudential Financial looks at how millennials imagine health, wealth and work in 50 years.
This study, "The 80-Year-Old Millennial," includes responses from more than 1,000 millennials ages 21 to 38.
"Millennials are at an important crossroads, having experienced some of the most significant economic booms in history, but also the Great Recession," said Vishal Jain, Prudential's Workplace Solutions Group financial wellness officer, in a statement. "It's incumbent on financial services companies — and any company that seeks to meet the financial and personal wellness needs of these constituents — to understand the changes that are driving behaviors within this generation."
The study focused on millennials' feelings about workplace trends, economic opportunity, technological advances and maintaining health. And, according to the millennials surveyed, the old assumptions about education, work and retirement no longer apply for themselves and their children.
The Workplace
Nearly nine in 10 millennials (88%) say people now in their 20s and 30s will need to work much longer than previous generations did to retire with the same level of financial security.
Even if they do work for a longer period, 79% believe that by the time they reach 80 years old, comfortable retirement will be a thing of the past. At least 70% say that's because it's impossible to save as much money each year as prescribed by current retirement planning tools.
Almost two-thirds of respondents agree that in the future "traditional full-time employment will largely disappear and freelancers will make up 75% or more of the U.S. workforce."
And nearly two-thirds of millennials are extremely or somewhat nervous that people will need to learn to work with and adapt to robots and artificial intelligence to do their jobs.
Most millennials (72%) report being nervous that employers will stop providing health care and retirement benefits. One-third say they are "extremely" nervous that employer-provided health care and retirement benefits will disappear.
