TruthDig – by Alexander Reed Kelly
The U.S. Census Bureau shows “the generation that has been dismissed as entitled and whiny is struggling with higher levels of poverty than their counterparts did in 1980,” when one in seven 18-to-34-year-olds lived in poverty, the Guardian reports.
Unemployment is a major factor:
Today, 65% of young adults are employed, down from 69% in 1980. The prior generation was also more likely to find themselves serving in the army: about 9% of the 18-to-34-year-olds were veterans in the 1980; today that number is just 2%.
The bureau’s survey also confirmed that more young people are going to college. Twenty-two percent of young adults have a college degree today, compared to just 16 percent of their 1980s counterparts.
Their expensive degrees – since 1978 the price of college has rocketed up 1,120%– unfortunately do not guarantee employment, not even in their chosen fields. The underemployment rate for 2013 college graduates was 18.3%, up from 9.9% in 2007.
As millennials struggle with student loans and finding jobs within their preferred professions, they are putting off some of the other milestones of adulthood, such as marriage: only three in 10 millennials have ever been married. In the 1980s, people ages 18 to 34 were getting married at twice that rate.
—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/one_in_five_young_adults_lives_in_poverty_20141226