What really puts generation Y at a disadvantage during a recession, says Crane, is the fact that . Because they've spent the previous four years in college, they don't know how to dress or act appropriately in professional settings, and that puts their employment at risk.

"Over 80 percent of them own a cell phone," says Crane. "Yet none of them use their cell phones to call people. They use them to text message. Employers are finding that when they suddenly put these people in an interview, they're not used to normal discourse. They're used to seeing questions pop up on their cell phone."

5. They lack coping skills.

Crane notes that members of Generation Y were taught as children that they're all winners in order to build their self-esteem. "This is an entire generation who has been told, 'you can not fail and you will win a prize just for showing up,' " she says.

Such child-rearing practices neglect to teach kids how to cope with real life or to digest criticism, generational experts say. Instead, those approaches to child psychology created a generation of young professionals with over-inflated egos, who are unprepared for the sometimes harsh, often thankless environment that is the workplace.