Millennials have peaked — now they’re having their ‘is this it?’ moment

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Is This It , the classic album by the Stokes, the rock band that turned the page from Gen X pop culture to something more distinctly millennial.

It’s also a favorite album for this author and Glassdoor senior economist Chris Martin, who used the phrase in a recent conversation about his latest Millennial Report .

Millennials, he told me about his most recent research, have reached midcareer, their earnings have “for the most part peaked,” and they can expect growth to match inflation from here on out for the rest of their careers.

The vibe is “we’ve made it,” Martin said, “and the long and the short of it is, it doesn’t feel good.” He described it as an “is this it?” moment.

I had to ask, was he channeling Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas? “Guilty as charged,” Martin said, adding that of course, he used to listen to the Strokes, and that vibe does sum up the modern age.

Martin’s preferred shorthand for the moment, borrowed from one of his generation’s defining bands, is hard to improve on: it’s the exact question a generation of newly arrived executives is quietly asking about the careers they spent 20 years building.

Is this all there is? A different kind of midlife crisis Martin’s new Millennial Report lays out the paradox in stark terms.

Millennials now make up 33% of the U.S. labor force — more than any other generation — and have nearly closed the management gap with Gen X (35% to Gen X’s 38%).

More than one in four executives are now millennials, and they outnumber Baby Boomers in both management and leadership roles.

Meanwhile, 76% of millennials say they’re actively questioning their career path, and 68% have delayed a major life milestone because of career uncertainty, according to Glassdoor Community polling from this summer.

The generation’s Glassdoor reviews tell the same story in a different register: burnout mentions run 44% higher among millennials than other generations, job-insecurity language is up 47%, and layoff mentions are up 54%.

For millennial women, burnout mentions are 76% higher than everyone else — the widest gap in the analysis.

The obvious question is whether this just midlife, dressed up in generational branding.

Martin acknowledged that it’s a bit hard to explain as Glassdoor’s review data is a snapshot, not a time series.