From increased job insecurity to an impenetrable housing market, we all know that millennials face big financial challenges compared to their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

But that bleak perspective has now been backed up by the results of a major new study, released on Monday. The research, conducted by the Resolution Foundation, shows that millennials in the UK earned £8,000 less in their 20s than the generation that went before them – and may be the first workers in modern history to see a drop in their lifetime earnings.

The research analysed how three generations had fared financially: the baby boomers, born in the late 1940s to early 1960s; their children, known as Generation X; and Generation X’s children, who are young adults today.

It found that older millennials, now in their early to mid-30s, were the first demographic to earn less than people five years older than them, the Guardian reports.

Younger millennials, who entered the workplace during or after the 2008-9 recession, have seen their earnings damaged even more – and the report warned that their prospects might never recover.

Millennials earn £8,000 less in their 20s than their parents did, study says