Did you Know? More than 10 Million Caregivers are Millennials!

[Jen]

A new study by AARP takes a look at how the caregiving equation is playing out in the lives of millennials and shines a light on the path forward. 

"Some highlights of the study:

Time — On average, millennials spend 21 hours per week on caregiving duties (i.e., just over half the time that constitutes a full-time work week) and nearly three quarters of them (73 percent) do it while also working a job.

Talking (or Not) — Compared with older caregivers, millennials tend to keep it to themselves: only 19 percent discuss their caregiving duties with coworkers vs. 47 percent for older caregivers. And fewer than half of millennial caregivers (46 percent) mention their duties to a supervisor, which may be a reflection of the fact that 54 percent say their work or career prospects have been negatively affected by their caregiving commitments.

Money — Perhaps most pressing is the cost of caregiving. Of the more than 1,200 millennial caregivers surveyed, the average respondent reported spending $6,800 per year (of their own income) on caregiving expenses (e.g., food, supplies, home modifications.) Compounded with the mounting student debt that is common for many millennials, the already profound challenges posed by caregiving can add financial pressure to the lives of caregivers."

You can read this new study HERE. 

Do we have any millennials in the forum? If so, how has caring for a loved one/or friend at such an earlier age than expected impacted your day to day, both emotionally and financially. 

Is this stat something that was unexpected?  

[JaneCares]

That's a lot of caregivers, born between 1982 and 1996, roughly. I had to look up the years for Millenials and found this from the Pew research folks: 

'm a boomer, and my kids are millenials.

I have a question that i hope someone will research: with all the divorces of the marriages of the parents of millenials, how are the millenials coping with the fractured families when one parent or another needs caregiving? There are step parents and half siblings, and way more complicated social ties than there are when at least everyone is related by DNA and all the siblings shared one childhood. I think divorce is shaping how people will age. I'm curious.

It's so important to understand what's going on and what people need.

Thanks for sharing this, Jen!

Jane