Why Are Record Numbers Of Young Adults Jobless And Living At Home With Mom And Dad?

In the United States today, unemployment among those age 18 to age 34 is at epidemic levels and the number of young adults that are now living at home with Mom and Dad is at an all-time high. So why are so many of our young adults jobless? Why are record numbers of them unable or unwilling to move out on their own? Well, there are quite a few factors at work. Number one, our education system has completely and totally failed them. As I have written about previously, our education system is a joke and most high school graduates these days are simply not prepared to function at even a very basic level in our society. In addition, college education in the United States has become a giant money making scam that leaves scores of college graduates absolutely drowning in debt. Many young adults end up moving back in with Mom and Dad because they are drowning in so much debt that there are no other options. Thirdly, the number of good jobs continues to decline and this is hitting younger Americans the hardest. Millions of young people enter the workforce excited about the future only to find that there are hordes of applicants for the very limited number of decent jobs that are actually available. So all of this is creating an environment where more young adults are financially dependent on their parents that ever before in modern American history.

Since the start of the recession, the percentage of young adults in America that are employed has dropped like a rock. In 2007, the employment rate for Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 was 62.4 percent. Today, it is down to 54.3 percent.

Yes, there are certainly many out there that are lazy, but the truth is that most of them would like to work if they could. It is just that it is much harder to find a job these days.

And it isn't just young people that think that the job market has gotten tougher. According to one recent survey, 82 percent of all Americans believe that it is harder for young adults to find jobs today than it was for their parents to find jobs.

But if they cannot get jobs, then young adults cannot financially support themselves. So more of them than ever are heading back home to live with Mom and Dad.

In the year 2000, 8.3 percent of all American women between the ages of 25 and 34 were living at home with their parents. Today, that figure is up to 9.7 percent.

In the year 2000, 12.9 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 were living at home with their parents. Today, that figure is up to an astounding 18.6 percent.

Take a moment and let those statistics sink in.

Nearly one out of every five American men from age 25 to age 34 are living at home with Mommy and Daddy.

When you look at Americans age 18 to age 24, it is even worse. Among Americans age 18 to age 24, 50 percent of all women and 59 percent of all men still live with their parents.

Those are very frightening numbers.

Part of this has to do with a fundamental cultural shift. An increasing number of parents these days expect that they will have to take care of their own children beyond the age of 22. The following is from a recent article by Pew Research....

When asked in a 1993 survey what age children should be financially independent from their parents, 80% of parents said children have to be self-reliant by age 22. In the current survey, only 67% of parents say children have to be financially independent by age 22—a drop of 13 percentage points.

But what accounts for the tremendous gender disparity that we see in the figures above?

Well, one major factor is that young women are now far more likely to pursue a college education than young men are. According to an article in the New York Times, women now account for approximately 57 percent of all enrollments at U.S. colleges and universities.

The less education you have, the more likely you are to be unemployed in America today. So that is certainly a significant factor.

But many that have gone on to college are also moving back home. When you are a young adult with no job and no prospects and you are swamped with tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt, it can be incredibly difficult to be financially independent.

After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are now borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago. Many students that go on to graduate school end up with more than $100,000 in total student loan debt.

Sadly, those degrees often do not pay off. In fact, in America today one-third of all college graduates end up taking jobs that don't even require college degrees.

So what does all of this mean?

It means that there are millions upon millions of angry, disillusioned and frustrated young adults out there today. A recent USA Today article told the story of 32-year-old Dennis Hansen....

After a year without work, Hansen, 32, was hired to monitor Lake Michigan and Lake Superior water for the state and federal governments over two summers. He also had short stints as a census worker and as an extra post office hand during one holiday crush.
It hasn't been enough: Hansen says he has a $13,000 credit card debt and that's just for basics — his $600 monthly mortgage, heat and food.
"It's definitely a roller coaster," Hansen says, with the ups coming when he's done well in a job interview and the downs when there's a rejection: "That's when I'm frustrated, angry and wondering why I went to college for 10 years."

If the economy was humming along on all cylinders, it would be easy to blame our young adults for being too lazy.

But these days most young adults have to scramble like crazy just to get a really low paying job. Large numbers of very talented young adults are waiting tables, flipping burgers or stocking shelves at Wal-Mart.

And this reality is reflected in the overall economic statistics. Since the year 2000, incomes for U.S. households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12 percent after you adjust for inflation.

The "wealth gap" between younger Americans and older Americans is also growing and recently hit a new all-time high. U.S. households led by someone 65 years of age or older are now 47 times wealthier than U.S. households led by someone 35 years of age or younger.

But this is not good for our society. When there is civil unrest, it is not those 65 and older that take to the streets.

We desperately need our economy to get healthy again so that our young adults can get good jobs, get married, set up households, raise families and be productive members of society.

Instead, the percentage of young adults that have jobs is near an all-time low, the percentage of young adults living with their parents is at an all-time high, the proportion of adults in the United States that are married is at an all-time low and we have hordes of angry, frustrated young adults with plenty of time on their hands.

You don't have to be a genius to see trouble on the horizon.

What is going to happen when the next major financial crisis comes and the economy gets significantly worse than it is now?

In the end, we are going to reap what we have sown. We have fundamentally failed our young adults, and those failures are going to produce some very bitter fruit.

If they need more money, they either cut out what’s costing them extra or they go get a second job. How hard is that, really?

Well, if there are jobs - getting a second job isn't that hard at all. But, there are a few fact you are not considering.

For starters, there are literally dozens or hundreds of unemployed/experienced folk competing for each job listing. It's not simply a matter of having a clean resume' and showing up for your interview dressed appropriately and knowing your stuff. It just isn't this way anymore.

Secondly, employers KNOW that there are far more employees than there are jobs, so following the laws of Supply and Demand; the wages for a given job are plummetting. My current job pays $12K less than my previous job; but it was the best offer I could find.

The kids, in fact pretty much everyone is a 'victim'. You had the BLESSING of having continuous employment through your career - but even our Military are facing layoffs with the new Obama budget. You have never known what it's like to show up for work, pleased with your Patents, your accomplishments and haveing done 'no wrong' in thought, word or deed - yet being shown the door without warning/cause or failure. I wish more than you may realize, to have had a career like you've enjoyed. To have a job that was consistent - where I could plan my life, do my job and not have to worry about "off-shoring", "Right-sizing", "RIF" and company-wide "layoffs", not because the company was going bankrupt, but because the profits made were not ENOUGH to satisfy senior managment.

In short; it's a very different world than it was when you were in the workforce. Today, there is no such concept as loyalty from the company. Your job is forfeit if some executive thinks he may get a $1 bonus by laying your department off.

I think i_robot73 nailed it.

It’s not intelligence, we as a race - are no dumber now than what we were in the 30-60’s. What has changed? Well, there used to be 18 yr old getting married, buying a car, working a job and affording a home. Why, many owned a home, a car and were starting a family while they were in their early 20’s. Why?

Taxes and Gov’t. Used to be a time when a young person could earn enough to work, while his wife stayed home and took care of housework and raising a family. He could earn a comfortable wage, provide for his family, his retirement, live in a decent home, and live comfortably. What was his tax rate? What Gov’t assistance programs were available? It was a time of personal responsibility and honest work.

Today, how many 20-somethings do you know who own their home and are embarking on a family with a stay-at-home wife? Back then, a reasonable house was approximately equal to ~2-4x their annual salary. Today, what is the cost of a home compared to a couple’s annual salary? Now, of that annual salary - how much do they get to keep versus 40 yrs ago?

Now, look at the business environment. Never before have we had so many businesses failing, off-shoring and layoffs. I remember when IBM announced layoffs in the late 70’s. The first to go were Sr. Managment; they got the company in that shape to start with. That is exactly the opposite way things work today.

The kids aren’t dumber, it’s not lack of educational opportunties - it’s a variety of reasons, and all of them are out of the ability for the ordinary person to control.

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