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

The Economic Collapse ^ | 02/14/2012 | Michael Snyder

[SeekAndFind]

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.

[cynwoody]

I wonder if this is the reason why we are using a lot less gas, given I haven't noticed any of those Volts and Leafs on the road.

The numbers.

[Reeses]

why so many young ‘adults’ are living at home is simple... they don’t have the tools with which to compete.

Those tools are brain cells and schools don't hand them out, only determine who has them. Most people need to compete in their league, not the majors, if they want to win on occasion. We can look to sports for a model that works: women do not compete against men, little league does not compete against kids 2 feet taller, high schoolers do not compete against pros. We should form leagues in life, cultivate success, and graduate those that are ready to compete in the next level. To work a league needs protection, rules of exclusion, that prevent non-native species from taking over that ecosystem. For example, a city like Detroit could fence off their city and ban cheap Chinese imports. Soon the locals would be working again. They would be paying more for products, but they would have jobs they could successfully compete in and pay for the purchases themselves. They would also be much happier. It's human nature to want to compete and win, but who plays when they always lose?

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Then I moved up to the point in life where you get to hire people. That’s when I learned the truth.

About a year ago, I had to hire someone for a part-time (29 hour) job on my team. I started getting emails from someone who had, a few years earlier, been a Sr. VP in another division. Now, apart from the fact that she had no experience in the specific skills I was looking for, there was no way I was going to hire someone who once far outranked me in the company. And the HR people didn't even put her on the short list of people to be interviewed. I ended up hiring someone who was coming off an internship with another unit in my division and for whom this job was the next logical step in her career.

[discostu]

Good choice, that would be worse than the usual overqualified candidate, somebody used to being in charge in that company would just be a nightmare.

[Tammy8]

In order to climb the ladder, you have to get on the first rung

The first rung is now taken by illegals in many fields, especially in jobs that don't require any college. Minimum wage protection does keep businesses from hiring as many employees as some would hire without it, but illegals have taken all the first jobs.

First illegals came to pick crops- and most said that is fine; then they came to tend livestock, construction, hotel/motel, food industries...and are now in mid-level management and even own some businesses that they worked their way into by taking jobs from citizens.

The whole time this has been happening we are told it is ok, because we don't need those jobs- we are all going to have tech jobs, easier jobs, better jobs- we are too good to do those jobs is our government propaganda. How is that working out for our young adults that are trying to get on that first rung to work up?

[dragnet2]

I disagree with your premise

You run from reality real fast.

There are probably 45 million young work age people and you suggest they all get two jobs?

Ya think there are 90 million jobs out there for these young folks? Come on.

Ya think young people in their 20s or 30s working at McDonald's can make enough to live on their own and some rented apartment or home and afford all that?

Come on.

[Vermont Lt]

Mmmm, let me think here.

Tons of young men. Unemployment so high that they feel helpless and hopeless.

And a lot of them have guns. And more guns are being sold every damn day.

THAT is not a good combination anywhere, any time.

Obama better pay attention. This type of environment has lead to revolution, war, and a whole host of other bad things over the past twenty centuries or so.

Ask Mubarak. Ask the Shah. Ask that German President before Hitler became chancellor.

[Vermont Lt]

College kids sending out resumes is perhaps the least likely way they are going to get jobs. Sad to say, but the first job is usually the result of the same method millions of others get jobs: networking.

The best advice to give these kids who cannot find even a crappy job is to start volunteering. All around.

You never know when you are going to stumble across that kid’s parent who is looking for exactly YOUR kid for a job at work.

Resumes get shredded.

I know. I used to shred them. After laughing at the typos.

[Vermont Lt]

College kids sending out resumes is perhaps the least likely way they are going to get jobs. Sad to say, but the first job is usually the result of the same method millions of others get jobs: networking.

The best advice to give these kids who cannot find even a crappy job is to start volunteering. All around.

You never know when you are going to stumble across that kid’s parent who is looking for exactly YOUR kid for a job at work.

Resumes get shredded.

I know. I used to shred them. After laughing at the typos.

[dragnet2]

Young people should look for any job that pays money and buy basic insurance on the private market.

Funny joke. There are millions in their 30s 40s 50s and up who now have *zero* health insurance. And you suggest young people are going to purchase health insurance, rent a house or apartment while working at some entry level job delivering pizzas or something?

Come on.

I know a young guy who could not afford heath insurance, after having his employer benefits stripped, and a simple broken collarbone cost him $4800. He figures it will cost him 3 to 4 years just to pay that off.

[TalonDJ]

And tens of thousands of parents out think it is not their fault even though they never told little Johnny not to go for that degree in Social Feminist English Literature Studies Education. But hey, if you let the public school do all your parenting for you, why stop when it comes time to give them advice on jobs and life? Aren’t their guidance councilors or something at that public school? Sure. They will take care of teaching you kid to be a functional adult. What could go wrong? I am sure that lack of a job thing is totally someone else fault. Probably the economy. Nothing whatever to do with bad parenting.

[central_va]

I learned a long time ago how to manipulate and use HR people. If I need a job, I'll get it. If no college is needed then that's off the resume. It's jerks like you that cause this kind of mess. I have no problem dumbing down my quals and experience if I need a job.

During the first recession in 1981 I had the college resume and the dumb resume. It isn't hard to figure out which one to use. I meet a meat brain like you I know what to do.

[central_va]

Being overqualified implies that the person by definition is also qualified too. So what you are saying is you have a QUALIFIED person willing to work for the wages offered but you refuse to hire them. I think there is a small place in hell for people like you. Somebody who is qualified, hell YOU DEEMED THEM OVERQUALIFIED, needs work. Is willing to accept the wages and is turned down by a loser like you. How humiliating. A democrat is formed every time that happens.

[ansel12]

Since you have elaborated and given a little work history, it does sound like you know a lot about looking for work, and have developed tricks and a talent for talking yourself into new, low quality jobs that don’t last.

On the other hand maybe you didn’t fool all those HR people and “meat brains” after all.

[MayflowerMadam]

Maybe ‘cause Mom and Dad were guilty of overindulgence and making the kids believe they’re entitled to the good life without working for it.

The spoiled rotten, lazy applicants my husband often interviews for jobs are unbelievable. One guy with his brand new PhD asked him, “Would I really have to work 40 hours a week?” DH answered, “If you’re lucky, you’ll ONLY have to work 40 hours a week.”

[OneWingedShark]

Democrats = Incompetence

Republicans = Incompetence

If they were at all competent, there would have been more than smoke-and-mirrors from Fast and Furious... that is people would be in jail, or dead*, for their participation therein.

* Treason is still punishable by death; all one needs to do to make F&F Treason is prove that the Mexican drug-cartels are enemies of the States.

[OneWingedShark]

These kids were bums before the economy turned south. They don’t want jobs, they aren’t looking for jobs, so the job market doesn’t really impact them.

That might be true for some; but I got my first "real job"* about a year ago. I put out a LOT of applications and got few responses; it was actually pleasantly surprising when I got an actual "we're sorry" letter simply because it showed more responsiveness/cost than the "we're sorry" e-mails. This job was actually the only one that I got that showed serious interest in picking me up as an employee.

Now, you'd be quite right to ask what sort of degree I have; so I'll tell you -- a bachelors in Computer Science... and it only took me a decade to get it (got deployed a couple times, that busted several semesters), but I got it with no loans so that puts me ahead of the game.

* By "real job" I mean a job in the private sector which was not obtained a) in part because of my social connections & b) not school or government funded.

The most it does is give them an excuse during the occasional parental tongue-lashing. And it’s not like they’d be qualified for anything but a menial job, they haven’t gone to any kind of schooling, they’ve developed no skills outside of Playstation. Part of having no responsibility means having no reason to become qualified for a job.

I tried applying for those 'menial jobs' in the last several summers before graduating; there was NOTHING. (Though I did get a job one summer with a man from my church doing landscaping.)

So, while I'm sure there are people who could get a job if they wanted; I'm not sure that there are as many jobs as you might like.

[eyeamok]

I hear ya, we are seeing first hand what they will do, it is happening in Greece and is coming here very soon, As soon as the weather warms up watch out, they got some big plans and they are not very pretty.

[OldPossum]

Have you ever seen a recent grad try to fill out a resume? Many can't spell or articulate their thoughts. The majority don't know the difference between "there and their" or, "your and you're".

Have you noticed that many Freepers have the same problem?

And I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of posters on various sites I have read who understand that "it's" is not the spelling of the possessive pronoun.

[central_va]

Since you have elaborated and given a little work history, it does sound like you know a lot about looking for work, and have developed tricks and a talent for talking yourself into new, low quality jobs that don’t last.

I make $170K/year now. There have been lean times/years when I had to work in overqualified postions for meat brains like you. Such is life. If I want a job I can get a job, the BS HR people won't stop me.