This blows.

You’ve probably heard your well-read anarchist friend drunkly sound off at some point that millennials, despite being insanely educated, earn less than their parents did at their age. Well, turns out the co-op grocery buying couch surfers are right.

According to a new report from Oxfam:

Youth unemployment spiked during the recession and remains double the overall unemployment rate. About one-third of young Canadians work in part-time jobs, many of which are low paying and temporary. ⁵⁸  Furthermore, 27.7 percent of Canadians aged 15–24 were underemployed in 2014.⁵⁹  Since the financial crisis, more university graduates, and women in particular, have been employed in jobs that require high-school-level skills or less.

Young Canadians have also been earning less. Today’s 25–34-year-old working full time makes $4,200 less per year than youth did three decades ago, adjusted for inflation. The earnings gap between age cohorts has also grown: in 1980, Canadians aged 25–34 earned 47 percent less than 50– 54-year-olds; now they earn 64 percent less.⁶⁰

Some other highlights from the report:

• The cost of undergraduate tuition has more than tripled since 1995.
• Tuition fees now take a much larger percentage of income from visible minorities — approximately 11 percent of the average annual incomes of white males, but 15 percent of male visible minorities and 21 percent of female visible minorities.
• According to the Canadian Federation of Students, today’s students are the most indebted generation in Canadian history. The average student graduates with over $28,000 of debt.
• Nearly nine out of ten students with children must go into debt to complete higher education.
• The interest charges on student loans disproportionately affect the poor, since they often pay 40 percent more for their education than those who can pay out of pocket.

Leave us a comment below. Let us know your thoughts on the new Oxfam report.