In terms of the larger economic environment, the boomers were generally born and raised during the Golden Age of Capitalism [1], but they likely entered the workforce around the time of the early '70s recession. However, the '80s and '90s appear to have been good times to have a job, but as each year went by, it became less and less good to have non-college jobs as the stats above show us. For millenials, the non-college jobs have been objectively worse in terms of pay, and the job opportunities that did exist were hampered by the .com bust (more a Gen Xer hindrance), the '08 bust, and of course, the covid shit show.

[0] Wages: https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R45090.pdf [1] Golden Age: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post%E2%80%93World_War_II_econ...