Most Millennials Can't Do a Single Nice Thing for Someone Else

Millennials are fussy about their real estate brokers, terrible at playing the stock market, and squatters who need to get out of their parents' basements. New government data give us another dubious factoid about the group: They have the lowest volunteering rate of all age groups, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The BLS, which surveyed (PDF) 60,000 U.S. households, found just 18.7 percent of adults aged 20 to 24 had volunteered sometime between September 2013 and September 2014, the smallest share of any age group. The group aged 25 to 34 was only a little better; 22 percent of these young adults volunteered during that period. Even sulky adolescents were more charitable: 26.1 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds volunteered.