According to Australia's millennials, the future isn't all that bright.
Research company Deloitte surveyed more than 8,000 millennials across 30 countries.
For its survey purposes it defined them as being born after 1982 and representing a specific group - those who have a college or university degree; are employed full-time; and work predominantly in large, private-sector organizations.
The survey found they have an overwhelmingly gloomy outlook, with only a fifth expecting an improvement in the social and political situation within the next year.
In comparison, 36 per cent of their international peers felt the situation will get better.
Just 8 per cent of Aussie millennials believe they will be better off than their parents, and half that number are confident they'll be happier.
Deloitte's National Leader for Human Capital, David Brown, says their pessimism is reflective of current world conditions.
"I think that they are genuinely questioning whether we are the lucky country. For most millennials, they see their parents having had...had a home, have had good jobs, and yet today what we're seeing is it's harder for them to get a job, that the whole contingent workforce and the changing nature of that. I think that what we're seeing in the Australian market, if you look at the political context and the constant shifting nature of the number of leaders that we have had, I think those issues...I think we're starting to see a greater transparency and concern around issues of safety and terror and those sorts of things, so I think they're all contributing to it."
Top concerns include terrorism, crime and personal safety, the environment, housing affordability and growing wealth inequality.
Millennial Jonathan Forage says he particularly understands worries around owning your own home.
"The numbers are hard to ignore with the increasing price of that, I think it's something that isn't assumed any more - that you will in your 20s own your first place. I think it is something that, if you commit to it it's still very attainable, but I think it is a commitment and something that needs to be made a focus."
But one thing they are feeling good about is their successors, Generation Z, with six out of 10 Australians believing the 'post millennials' have the skills for the 21st century.
David Brown says there is hope.
"They actually see the Gen Zs as having more opportunity than themselves, they see them as being more creative, they see them as being socially tech...from a technology perspective, that their skillsets are stronger there. Perhaps there's a whole generation of our millennials who, from an attitudinal perspective, are looking forward to their parents and they're looking behind them at who's coming and just feeling crunched."
Gina Lednyak is a millennial, also known as a Gen Y'er. who came to Australia via New York after her family left Belarus when the Soviet Union fell apart.
She's now running her own social media business, and says Australia's location and history influence our point of view.
"I think seeing that environment of (the) Soviet Union and communism and political upheaval and then being in a place like Australia, we are so incredibly lucky to have all of these opportunities that we have here. It actually allows us the opportunity to worry about the little things. You need a fair bit of struggle or something to be able to know how lucky you are and I think in Australia at times we don't actually get that perspective."
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