The average Spanish millennial spends more than half of their monthly income on rent. In a country where it's hard to earn and expensive to live, something has to give.

Spanish start-up Mr Jeff would probably win the prize for the most millennial company name in Spain. The laundry delivery service is named after Jeffrey the Butler from the 1990s TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, whose theme lyrics are ingrained in the mind of most millennials.

Mr Jeff got its start in 2016 thanks to three founders – all millennials, no surprise – and the Valencia-based company has quickly expanded from Spain into Latin America. For founder Eloi Gómez, 26,beginning his own start-up was a no-brainer.

“Four or five years ago it was like, if I’m not [starting a business] then I will have to go abroad or I’ll have to go and get a masters because a real job sounded crazy. It was impossible to get a real job,” he says.

Around the world millennials are bearing the brunt of a crippling economic crisis – low-paid jobs on temporary contracts, rising housing prices and the pressure of supporting an ageing population. In Spain young people have felt the squeeze particularly hard.Compared to Generation X (those born between 1966 and 1980) when they were aged 30 to 34, millennials of the same age have 30% lower disposable income in realterms.

“This is probably the first generation that, to some extent, does not have a guarantee that they will benefit from better living conditions than their parents,” says Marcel Jansen, professor of economics at the Autonomous University of Madrid and researcher at the Madrid-based Foundation of Applied Economic Studies. “We did a comparison in 2014 where we compared [labour market] entry conditions of young people to those who entered in previous decades and we had to go back to the late 80s to find similar living conditions.”

Five years into the Global Financial Crisis in 2013, youth unemployment levels in Spain topped 56%. Throughout the past decade long-term unemployment has multiplied fivefold among young Spaniards.

“Our generation was taught that you just have to study and get a degree from university and after that you will have a job,” Gómez says. But millennials like him have had to make alternative plans,deviating from the model followed by prior generations.

The uncertain future is propelling what has been dubbed Spain’s “lost generation” toward non-traditional jobs to make aliving. In modern Spain, the linear path just does not cut it for many to get by.

与中国的年轻人状况如出一辙，也被定义为“lost generation"，当我们三四十岁的时候，我们的可支配收入比上一辈还少30%，所以情况很艰巨，我辈须努力。