Main Street

The Lost Decade: Young Workers and the Future

The “lost decade” in the report I’ve been writing about recently refers to the lack of progress—the backward slide by many measures—that young workers have had since 1999. But we also have to look ahead and fear more lost decades, based on what young people surveyed here told us.

The report says:

The decline in young workers’ financial standing over the past decade has serious implications, and not just for their bank accounts. Young workers are finding it increasingly difficult to achieve personal and financial independence—in other words, to transition effectively into adulthood. Many are forced to postpone the education and professional development that would help them become financially independent. Many are putting off starting a family or even moving out of their parents’ house. Rising costs, coupled with less pay, fewer benefits on the job and fewer stable job opportunities, create a system in which traditional paths to adulthood are blocked for a growing number of young people.

What does that mean?

• 34% of the young workers surveyed still live with parents—theirs or a spouse’s. For those making less than $30,000 per year, 52% were still living with parents. That doesn’t just affect young people, either. That’s a generation of parents who probably didn’t expect to still have their kids at home.
• Nearly half—48%—of young workers of color said they had put off education or professional development because of the cost. 32% of Caucasians said the same. Without being able to get the education and training they need, how will those young people get ahead?
• And they worry about having to postpone starting a family for financial reasons—31% said this was a concern.

Think about this. This is a generation that is working hard—remember that 45% told us they were working more than 40 hours a week and 28% wanted to work more hours each week—but their paths forward are blocked by financial concerns. That’s a misery for each of those adults (young, but still adults) living in their parents’ house, not able to afford the education that would help them get a better job, not able to think about starting a family they couldn’t support. But it’s also about this country. What will the U.S. be over the next decades? Will there be opportunity for people—young or old—to get the education they want and need, to find an affordable place to live, to move forward in their lives?