--- title: This One Question Can Show if You're Smarter than Most U.S. Millennials description: Young people in the United States ranked nearly last in a new international test of job skills. See how you compare by answering this one question. authors: - name: Susie Poppick url: https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/ at_money_since: 2013 articles: 117 covers: - Education - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/susiepoppick former_staff: true published: '2015-03-11T19:35:26.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T05:28:39.000Z' section: Education tags: - apester - ets - gre - International - Italy - Japan - job skills - Literacy - Math - math skills - Millennials - reading comprehension - reading skills - Spain - test - what country is smartest - who is smarter word_count: 263 canonical: https://money.com/american-millennials-job-skills-ets/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Millennial office](https://img.money.com/2015/03/150311_car_usmillunskilled.jpg?crop=0px%2C208px%2C5616px%2C3159px&quality=85) Let's say you see an advertisement that reads: > Apply for a loan > **Up to $70,000 > ***Terms of the loan > *Pay only $103 per month for each $1,000 borrowed > Payable in 12 equal monthly payments What's the annual simple interest rate on the loan? If you answer correctly—you'll have to read on to find out—you're ahead of the curve when it comes to marketable job skills. According to a new [report](http://content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/asc-millennials-and-the-future.pdf) from Educational Testing Service (ETS), which designs the GRE and other exams, American millennials lag far behind young people in other countries when it comes to all the [top skills](http://fortune.com/2015/03/10/american-millennials-are-among-the-worlds-least-skilled/) that employers seek. Those include literacy, ability to follow basic written instructions, problem-solving while using technology—and math. To arrive at these findings, ETS administered a new test called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies to thousands of people across 22 developed countries. Out of all millennials, Americans ranked last for numeracy, tied with Italians and Spaniards. Gen Y-ers stateside also got lower reading comprehension scores than peers in 15 of the 22 countries. (Japan ranked number one across all categories.) That [sample](http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/figures/sample_num4.asp) question you saw above was described by ETS as 5/5 on the difficulty scale for numeric literacy. The answer, by the way, is around 24%. You can see a longer list of sample questions [here](http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/sample_num.asp) and read the full report on the ETS [website](http://content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/asc-millennials-and-the-future.pdf). **More from Money.com:** Most Americans Fail This 3-Question Financial Quiz. Can You Pass It? [Europe Just Got Even Cheaper for U.S. Travelers](https://money.com/europe-cheap-travel/ "Europe Just Got Even Cheaper for U.S. Travelers") [This Is How You Write a Perfect Interview Thank You Note](https://money.com/what-to-say-thank-you-after-interview/ "This is How You Write a Perfect Post-Interview Thank You") ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/american-millennials-job-skills-ets/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Education", "item": "https://money.com/education/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Preparing for College", "item": "https://money.com/preparing-for-college/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "This One Question Can Show if You're Smarter than Most U.S. Millennials" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/american-millennials-job-skills-ets/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/american-millennials-job-skills-ets/", "name": "This One Question Can Show if You're Smarter than Most U.S. Millennials", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-03-11T19:35:26.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/american-millennials-job-skills-ets/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/american-millennials-job-skills-ets/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T05:28:39.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "This One Question Can Show if You're Smarter than Most U.S. Millennials", "articleSection": "Education", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/03/150311_car_usmillunskilled.jpg?crop=0px%2C208px%2C5616px%2C3159px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "150311_CAR_USMillUnskilled" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susie Poppick", "url": "https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/14-05-21_bio_author_poppick.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "email": "susie_poppick@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/susiepoppick" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-03-11T19:35:26.000Z", "description": "Young people in the United States ranked nearly last in a new international test of job skills. See how you compare by answering this one question.", "abstract": "Young people in the United States ranked nearly last in a new international test of job skills. See how you compare by answering this one question.", "@id": "https://money.com/american-millennials-job-skills-ets/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-16T05:28:39.000Z", "wordCount": 263, "keywords": [ "apester", "ets", "gre", "International", "Italy", "Japan", "job skills", "Literacy", "Math", "math skills", "Millennials", "reading comprehension", "reading skills", "Spain", "test", "what country is smartest", "who is smarter" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Education", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "College admissions in the United States", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_admissions_in_the_United_States" ] } ] } ] } ```