NYT: For young people, a long trend of increasing economic hardship

From the New York Times online:

Today’s young people, ages 18 to 24, should have been the lucky ones. They were preteens or teenagers when the recession hit in late 2007, with high school and college still ahead.

Unlike those who had to enter the work force in the depths of the downturn, they had time, or so it seemed, to wait out the weak economy.

But that’s not how things have worked out...

For young people, these conditions will only deepen a long trend of increasing economic hardship.

Census data that compares today’s 18-to-24-year-olds with the same age group in 1970 and in 1990 show more poverty among young adults over time, as well as lower income and less independence.

But young people today are appreciably worse off than those in previous generations...

For young people who are on their own, either living alone or with housemates or spouses, median household income, recently $30,604, is nearly $4,600 less than in 1970 and virtually unchanged since 1990, adjusted for inflation.

Lack of opportunity and lack of resources mean a smaller share of young high school and college graduates are relocating, traditionally a way up a career ladder...

Underemployment — which includes those who are officially unemployed, those who want to work but haven’t looked recently for a job and those stuck in part-time jobs — is 16.8 percent.

Equally worrisome, 44 percent of young college graduates in 2012 were working in jobs that didn’t require a college degree (versus 38 percent before the recession in 2007), according to data from researchers at the Federal Reserve.

In 2000, half of college-educated workers in jobs that didn’t require a degree were in generally well-paid professions, working as electricians, for example, or dental hygienists.

Now they are more likely to be waiters, bartenders or cashiers...
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Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/opinion/sunday/starting-out-behind