This recession will ruin a generation in the UK: How millennials are facing the brunt of past mistakes

A whole generation around 40 or under in this country have experienced nothing but economic turmoil.

The first millennials came fresh out of university in the noughties and stepped into the Labour ‘things can only get better’ boom when the economy was on fire and London was richer than ever.

Things quickly took a turn for the worst. In 2008 Lehmans went bust and the economy fell like a pack of cards.

The baby boomers - who have created some great businesses and are much less self-involved than millennials (they don’t stand in the street for 20 minutes pretending to be a supermodel for Insta) - were damaged but still had houses and other assets to fall back on.

Then just as things were improving, the UK was again slowed down by Brexit in 2016 and the chaos that right wing populist governments brought to the country.

Now there’s coronavirus.

Today’s GDP numbers should not be underestimated. A 20% fall is the largest ever recorded and while June offered some hope this crisis will take years, not months to clear up.

What is most interesting about recessions is what the GDP measurements fail to measure.

It’s the big job that was shelved, the business project that wasn’t financed, the pay rise and bonus never handed out as the bunker, survival mentality takes over.

The economy doesn’t grow and neither does the people working in it.

Even before the coronavirus crisis hit, the UK economy had some deep underlying problems.

For starters, the country is one of the most unproductive in the world. Years of underinvesting and cost cutting have left companies behind rivals in the US and much of the G7.

While under-trained managers and senior level executives have left the country with leaders who have no idea how to get the best out of their staff.

So once this is all over where is the growth going to come from?

The millennial generation will probably end up sharing more in common with its grandfathers than fathers.

Starting small efficient businesses that grow over decades.

The UK economy is a repair job.