Joe Biden wasn't the candidate of choice for young Americans in the Democratic primaries, but they overwhelmingly supported him in the general election.

Now their economic futures rest in the hands of the president-elect, who will be the oldest person ever to serve in that office when he takes over on Jan. 20. Former President Ronald Reagan, the previous record holder, was a few weeks away from his 78th birthday when he left office in 1989; Biden turns 78 on Friday.

Biden inherits responsibility for a group of Americans in their 20s and 30s who have been knocked down by the economic trends of the last couple of decades, including rising housing and health-care costs and record levels of student debt. Now the Covid-19 recession is hitting young Americans hardest, putting a disproportionate number of Millennials ? and their younger siblings in Generation Z ? out of work.

Young people weren't catching up with older generations even before the pandemic, when the U.S. economy was strong. In fact, the wealth gap between the generations has steadily widened since the 1990s.

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