Millennials are getting fired in droves (and here’s why)

Remember that career ladder you were promised? The one where you work hard, pay your dues, and climb your way to a comfortable life? It’s being sawed off, rung by rung, right under the feet of an entire generation.

Look, this isn’t another tired rant about millennials killing the napkin industry or whatever. The truth is much bigger and a lot more brutal.

It’s not about avocado toast or a lack of work ethic. A massive corporate restructuring, dubbed the “Great Flattening,” is systematically eliminating middle management, and millennials are caught squarely in the crossfire.

Layoffs are a constant feature of the American economy, with about 1.6 million people getting pink slips in June 2025 alone, according to USAFacts. But something is different now. Layoffs in the first half of 2025 are already 3.5% higher than in the same period in 2024.

And here’s the kicker: it’s not random. A Bloomberg analysis reveals that manager-level roles made up nearly a third of all layoffs in 2023. Just five years prior, in 2018, it was only 20%. This is a targeted culling, and it’s hitting one generation harder than any other.

First, the corporate ladder they were told to climb is being dismantled

Welcome to the ‘Great Flattening’

There’s a new buzzword in the C-suite: “unbossing,” or “flattening.” It’s a corporate-speak way of saying they’re gutting the middle of the company.

They see layers of management as bloated, slow, and expensive. Mark Zuckerberg of Meta famously criticized the system of “managers managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work.”

And he’s not just talking. This is happening across corporate America. Citi slashed its management layers from 13 down to eight. UPS axed a staggering 12,000 managerial jobs. The message from the top is crystal clear: the middle is expendable.

The job market data tells a brutal story

You don’t have to take our word for it—just look at the job postings. A recent analysis by workforce analytics firm Revelio Labs is terrifying. While entry-level job postings dropped by 14% during a recent slowdown, postings for middle-management positions absolutely plummeted by 43%.

This isn’t a temporary blip. Even as hiring for other roles starts to rebound, there are 42% fewer middle-management openings now than there were in April 2022. These jobs aren’t just in a slump; they’re vanishing.

The layoffs reflect this perfectly. Data from Live Data Technologies shows that 32% of all layoffs in 2023 hit middle managers. That’s a massive jump from just 20% in 2019. It’s a strategic demolition of the career path an entire generation was taught to follow.

They’re at the wrong age at the wrong time

The demographic danger zone

Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, are now roughly 28 to 43 years old. This puts them squarely in the demographic danger zone.

They’re at the exact age where you’d expect to be in your first or second management role—the very jobs that are on the chopping block.

They’re also the largest segment of the workforce, comprising 36% of all employees, according to the U.S Department of Labor. So when their specific career stage gets targeted, it feels like a generational earthquake.

The layoff numbers don’t lie

During the “Big Firing” of 2022, millennials accounted for an unbelievable 94% of laid-off workers, according to data from Revelio Labs and Layoffs.fyi. Let that sink in. Ninety-four percent.

It’s no accident. As careers expert Chris Lovell plainly states, “Since millennials make up a large portion of middle management, they, along with some Gen X, are most likely to be affected by this trend.”

This couldn’t have come at a worse time. HuffPost reports that this generation has taken on 300% more student debt than their parents, is about half as likely to own a home as young adults were in 1975, and has one in five of its members living in poverty. They simply don’t have the financial cushion to weather this storm.

Their work style is seen as a liability (fair or not)

It’s not laziness, it’s a different set of priorities

Let’s get one thing straight: the old “lazy and entitled” trope is dead. The data tells a completely different story. A Deloitte survey found that 58% of millennials feel empowered to drive change at work. Other millennials believe businesses can have a positive impact on society.

So what do they actually want? According to Deloitte’s 2024 survey, work-life balance is their number one priority, and nearly 90% say having a sense of purpose is important for job satisfaction.

This isn’t some fluffy preference. It’s a direct response to a culture of burnout. Deloitte states that a third of stressed-out millennials cite their job and a nonexistent work-life balance, fueled by extremely long hours, as the main culprits.

A culture clash in a cost-cutting world

Millennials were told to expect supportive leadership and meaningful work, and they’re not comfortable with rigid, old-school corporate structures.

But in today’s cutthroat, efficiency-obsessed world, these boundaries are being weaponized against them. As agency founder Joel Wolfe told Business Insider, some millennial managers are seen as having “fixed schedules and aren’t flexible,” which makes them seem “vulnerable when layoffs happen.”

It’s not a character flaw; it’s a clash of values. But when the company is sharpening its axe, a manager who logs off at 5 p.m. to see their family is an easier target than one who answers emails at midnight. The very things that made them “evolved” managers a few years ago are now being framed as liabilities.

The next generation (Gen Z) doesn’t even want their jobs

A looming succession crisis

Here’s where it gets really messy: Gen Z is looking at the middle-management grind and saying, “Hard pass.” A Robert Walter survey found that a staggering 70% of Gen Z dismissed these jobs as “high stress, low reward.”

Deloitte’s research confirms this, finding that only 6% of Gen Z even list reaching a leadership position as their main career goal. They see it for what it’s become: a bureaucratic nightmare with little upside.

This is creating a massive succession crisis. If no one wants to be a manager, who’s going to lead the company in 10 years? The leadership pipeline is starting to look bone dry.

More anxiety, more mobility

The fear is real, and it’s hitting the youngest workers the hardest. They’ve watched millennials get chewed up by the system and are understandably terrified of being next.

This anxiety isn’t just a feeling; it’s driving their career choices. Gen Z has the highest attrition rate of any generation. A full 22% have left a job within a year—that’s more than double the rate for millennials (9%).

Their average job tenure in their first five years is a ridiculously short 1.1 years, compared to 1.8 years for millennials. They aren’t sticking around to see if things get better.

They’re treating their careers like a series of gigs, not a lifelong commitment.

And finally, AI is changing the whole game

The rise of the robot manager

Generative AI is getting scarily good at doing what managers used to do: summarizing meetings, tracking productivity, brainstorming, and even coding.

This isn’t some sci-fi future; it’s here now. A recent survey found that 90% of workers are already using AI tools on the job.

HR expert David Rice doesn’t mince words. He directly links the wave of tech layoffs to AI development. “Is it a coincidence that it’s the sector developing AI and starting to think it needs less people? No, I don’t think it is.”

The great irony: millennials are leading the charge

Here’s the most mind-bending part of this whole mess. Despite being the generation most at risk of being replaced, millennials are the most enthusiastic adopters of AI in the workplace.

According to PYMNTS Intelligence, 52% of millennials use GenAI for work—the highest of any generation. A solid 61% say it helps them work faster, and over 70% are happy with the results.

Meanwhile, Gen Z is more concerned, with nearly 40% fearing that AI will replace them, and they’re more critical of their coworkers who use it.

In their quest to be more productive, millennials are mastering and championing the very technology that’s giving their bosses a reason to make their jobs disappear. They are, in a way, automating their own extinction.

Key Takeaway

Millennial layoffs aren’t about personal failure; they’re a symptom of a perfect storm. A massive corporate restructuring called the “Great Flattening” is eliminating the middle-management jobs they were groomed for. They are caught in a demographic vise—at the exact age and career stage being targeted.

This trend is accelerated by Gen Z’s refusal to climb a broken ladder and the rise of AI, a tool that millennials themselves have championed. The promise of the corporate ladder is fading, and millennials are the first generation to feel the full impact of its decline.

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