If technology means producing more with less, there should be dramatic economic progress, but there has not been, and millennials are not dramatically better off than their boomer parents.

Judge as of November 2024. The claim has two parts. (1) There has been no dramatic economic progress: in recent decades US productivity growth and real GDP-per-capita growth have not been markedly faster than historical norms, and have been similar to or slower than the 1948–1973 period. (2) Millennials are not dramatically better off than their boomer parents: at comparable ages, millennials' real median household income and median wealth are lower, about equal, or only modestly higher (less than about 25% higher). True: both parts hold. Mostly true: both broadly hold, with one measure moderately exceeding the threshold. Mixed: one part holds and the other does not. Mostly false: progress was notably strong, or millennials are clearly better off on most measures, with only a narrow statistic supporting the claim. False: data show dramatic growth acceleration and millennials substantially better off on income and wealth.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Millennials and Older Gen Zers Made Significant Wealth Gains in 2022 St. Louis Fed (On the Economy blog) · 26 February 2024

   “We found that the median wealth of older millennials (those born between 1980 and 1989) was 37% above expectations.”

2. E2 Millennials and Older Gen Zers Made Significant Wealth Gains in 2022 St. Louis Fed (On the Economy blog) · 26 February 2024

   “Three years later, in 2019, they had begun to catch up to other generations, but their median wealth was still 11% below expectations (revised to 9% given the latest method).”

3. E3 Total Factor Productivity - 2025 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · 19 March 2026

   “TFP grew 1.0 percent in the private nonfarm business sector over the current business cycle, 2019-25. This growth outpaced the 0.6-percent TFP growth in the previous business cycle which spanned from 2007-19.”

4. E4 Millennial households are earning more than most older Americans did at the same age Pew Research Center · 11 December 2018

   “The median adjusted income in a household headed by a Millennial was $69,000 in 2017. That is a higher figure than for nearly every other year on record, apart from around 2000, when households headed by people ages 22 to 37 earned about the same amount – $67,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars.”

5. E5 Total Factor Productivity – 2025 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · 19 March 2026

   “TFP grew 1.0 percent in the private nonfarm business sector over the current business cycle, 2019-25. This growth outpaced the 0.6-percent TFP growth in the previous business cycle which spanned from 2007-19.”

6. E6 Total Factor Productivity – 2025 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · 19 March 2026

   “In 2025, private nonfarm business labor productivity increased 2.2 percent, less than the 3.0 percent growth in 2024.”

7. E7 Productivity Growth in the Advanced Economies: The Past, the Present, and Lessons for the Future Council of Economic Advisers (Jason Furman remarks, Peterson Institute for International Economics) · 9 July 2015

   “labor productivity has grown only 0.7 percent per year since 2010, well below the 2.3 percent average from 1948 to 2007.”

8. E8 Productivity Growth in the Advanced Economies: The Past, the Present, and Lessons for the Future Council of Economic Advisers (Jason Furman remarks, Peterson Institute for International Economics) · 9 July 2015

   “Productivity growth surged, rising 2.2 percent at an annual rate between 1995 and 2014.”

9. E9 Has intergenerational progress stalled? From Poverty to Progress (Substack) · 22 March 2024

   “At age 36–40, Millennials had a real median household income that was 18 percent higher than that of the previous generation at the same age.”

10. E10 Millennials are the highest paid generation in American history - Kevin Drum Kevin Drum (Jabberwocky blog) · 20 September 2021

    “Averaged together, Millennial income at age 40 is about 25% higher than Boomers at the same age, but the earnings of men have been basically flat while the earnings of women have gone up 75%.”

On productivity, E7 reports US labor productivity growth of only 0.7% a year after 2010, against a 1948–2007 average of 2.3%. E8 puts the 1995–2014 surge at 2.2% a year, which is about the historical norm, not markedly above it. So part (1) broadly holds. On income, E9 puts millennials' real median household income at ages 36–40 at 18% above the previous generation's, and E10 puts millennial income at about age 40 at roughly 25% above boomers', which is at the threshold. The wealth evidence (E1, E2) measures millennials against modelled expectations rather than against boomers at the same age, so it only partly bears on part (2). Overall it supports a modest rather than dramatic generational gain, with one income measure at the threshold.