Share of young adults not working or in school is at a 30-year low in U.S.
The 30-year low reflects in part tight labor markets and falling unemployment, but also higher shares of young women at work or in school.
Richard Fry is a senior researcher at Pew Research Center. He is an expert on school and college enrollment in the United States, as well as the returns to education in the labor market and marriage market, and its connection to household economic well-being such as net worth. Fry’s analyses are largely empirical, as he has extensive expertise analyzing U.S. Census Bureau and other federal data collections. Before joining Pew Research Center in 2002, he was a senior economist at the Educational Testing Service. Fry received his doctorate in economics from the University of Michigan. Fry regularly documents U.S. educational and enrollment milestones, the economic well-being of the nation’s young adults, the role of student debt in financing college education, and the changing relationship between education and marriage and cohabitation.
Publications
Filtering by:
Reset
-
-
Majority of Americans Say Parents Are Doing Too Much for Their Young Adult Children
Financial independence is one of the many markers used to designate the crossover from childhood into young adulthood, and it’s a milestone most Americans (64%) think young adults should reach by the time they are 22 years old, according to a new Pew Research Center study. But that’s not the reality for most young adults who’ve reached this age.
-
The number of people in the average U.S. household is going up for the first time in over 160 years
This decade will likely be the first since the one that began in 1850 to break a long-running decline in American household size.
-
Households headed by less-educated adults have seen significant income gains during U.S. recovery
Household incomes in the United States have rebounded from their 2012 bottom in the wake of the Great Recession. And for the most part, the typical incomes of households headed by less-educated adults as well as more-educated adults have increased.
-
College faculty have become more racially and ethnically diverse, but remain far less so than students
Around a quarter of college faculty in the U.S. were nonwhite in fall 2017, compared with 45% of students.
-
Baby Boomers are staying in the labor force at rates not seen in generations for people their age
The majority of Baby Boomers are still in the labor force: In 2018, 53% of adults ages 54 to 72 were still working or looking for work.
-
U.S. women near milestone in the college-educated labor force
This year will likely be the first year in which women are a majority of the U.S. college-educated labor force.
-
Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X outvoted older generations in 2018 midterms
Midterm voter turnout reached a modern high in 2018, and Generation Z, Millennials and Generation X accounted for a narrow majority of those voters
-
A Rising Share of Undergraduates Are From Poor Families, Especially at Less Selective Colleges
An influx of students from low-income families and students of color at U.S. colleges and universities has almost exclusively fueled the growth in the overall number of undergraduates.
-
Millennial life: How young adulthood today compares with prior generations
Now that the youngest Millennials are adults, how do they compare with those who were their age in the generations that came before them?
REFINE YOUR SELECTION
Date
Years
Formats
Topics
Regions & Countries
© 2024 Pew Research Center