A generation accustomed to financial challenges is dealing with their recession fears through wry TikToks and by swapping cost-cutting suggestions online.

Millennials are worried they are about to experience a “once-in-a-lifetime” recession. Again.

Dire economic downturns are supposed to be rare, but millennials — defined by the Pew Research Center as those born between 1981 and 1996 — have already had several recessions during formative stages of their lives, from the dot-com bubble burst when most were children, to the Great Recession as they entered the workforce after college, to the Covid-19 pandemic when they were trying to settle into their careers.

Once dubbed the “unluckiest generation,” millennials have postponed major milestones during past recessions. A significant slice of them graduated college between 2007 and 2009 and struggled to find jobs, which led them to delay buying homes, getting married, and making major purchases, such as cars. Then, after the pandemic led to another sharp recession, some millennials, contending with student loans and rising costs of living, decided to rethink having kids.