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 22a 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.