My sister went from making $11/hr at a book store to $20/hr staying at home on unemployment. She didn't spend any of it on anything but rent and utilities (we were already providing food for her). She went from being in debt to having about $9k in the bank. She plans to live on this until it runs out and then return to work as a service worker. She moved in with my mother to make that runway longer--she figures she can make it last somewhere between a year or two.
I don't think she's unique in this. A lot of millenials were poorly educated with job skills and personal finance. Accordingly, they dug themselves into debt with student loans and credit cards that obligated them to take shitty service jobs with no prospects. COVID-19 and extended unemployment benefits let them dig themselves out of that hole by doing nothing, but they still don't have an internal motivation that money and assets are good things to acquire.
They work to live, not live to work. They won't go back into the workforce until their personal circumstances force them back into the workforce and I don't blame them at all.
I don't think she's unique in this. A lot of millenials were poorly educated with job skills and personal finance. Accordingly, they dug themselves into debt with student loans and credit cards that obligated them to take shitty service jobs with no prospects. COVID-19 and extended unemployment benefits let them dig themselves out of that hole by doing nothing, but they still don't have an internal motivation that money and assets are good things to acquire.
They work to live, not live to work. They won't go back into the workforce until their personal circumstances force them back into the workforce and I don't blame them at all.