These numbers are really grim, and considering the job market only gets more cruel a few years after the top end of this age bracket, it makes it hard for young people to have a lot of hope for the future.<p>Granted, maybe some of them are reflective of age-agnostic trends but still! Start in higher debt then make less than ever! As a young person looking at these numbers I realize I am squandering my blessings as a high paid tech worker.<p>We are setting up our future for failure while claiming we needed to make these sacrifices for today.
Relative to the year 2000 is the part that scares me the most. It seems that largely things have changed for the worse over the last decade.<p>For Massachusetts:<p>Lower employment by an entire %4. Lower wages by 4k/year (%10 less!!!), adjusted for inflation. More people living with parents, fewer people living alone (read: piled into group houses with their former college roommates/friends). More people in poverty. More people never married (can't afford a real wedding, or ring). More people with higher education, likely not being put to use. Student loan debt and credit card debt aren't even listed on here as statistics.<p>The bleakest part is that the damage has mostly already been done to this cohort of people who I am a part of. The low wages now cripple wage growth in the future, which is bound to be bearish for people who aren't already rich. The race to the bottom is a real thing.<p>Thankfully, many people are starting to refer to our period of time as "late capitalism" for increasingly obvious reasons. Things will have to bottom out and improve at some point.
Aside from the economic indicators, which are already being discussed here, the numbers for "never married" (up), "veteran" (way down), and "foreign born" (up) really jump out as trends. "Living with a parent" (up) is also a trend, but perhaps one more directly tied to the employment economy.<p>For better or worse, all these trends have had and will have important societal impacts. Why don't we see more discussions on this sort of thing? Other issues, like who's paying what in taxes, seem less important by comparison.<p>Note that I'm not making qualitative judgments on the people that fall into different categories. The numbers just jump out to me and I wonder why they aren't discussed more in conversations about who millenials are, what they think, and how they will approach the society, culture, and government.
The Median Earnings for Full Time Workers page was quite sad for America.<p>Language Other than English Spoken at Home was quite surprising for me. I had no idea it was that high.<p>I don't understand how the employment numbers can be that bad. 35% unemployment - that is mostly impacted by people rearing children and college age folk, I hope.
As a millennial these trends are frighting to see.<p>It's frustrating when I chat with friends who are a few years older than me about this (mid 30s), and they blame all of this on millennials just being lazy. Or stupid, for picking bad degrees. I think the issues are larger and more systemic than that.
This is nice but I'm surprised at the bracket 18-34? (at least separating 18-24 and 25-34 would have been better.) The listed bracket 18-34 covers young adulthood where most eventual high earners would be earning near 0 in college, to late twenties with some people pursuing masters but most joining workforce, to <i>mid-thirties</i> with some people fully educated and having 10-12 years of experience in their field. (e.g. a programmer graduating at 24 and earning $90K ($120K bay area) by 34 is not in any way unusual, but here gets averaged with others, maybe including his future peer, who are <i>just</i> starting college and are showing very low earnings for a few years.)<p>Likewise, "living with a parent (18-34)"... "Bachelor's degree (18-34)"... Quite the bracket!
Considering there has been an increasing larger percentage of the population going to college, the statistics might somehow get skewed by the population between age 18~23.<p>If one is in college, it is natural to assume that she or he is not fully employed, has low income, mostly not married, etc.
I was surprised at the number who had a degree was less than the national average for California. I guess there's a lot of immigrant workers who don't achieve higher education levels which skews the perception living and working in the valley. States like Virginia and Kansas beat the national average, yet not california, that's really sad.
The age bracket doesn't really work out for certain categories, as for the below example it automatically excludes most people age 18-21 as with a standard 4 year degree will land you around the age of 22 minimum.<p>Bachelor's Degree or Higher, Age 18 to 34
Percent of total population age 18 to 34 years with bachelor's degree or higher
Time for some personal experience.<p>Both my fiancé and I are employed. Most would consider our combined income to be very good. Considering the economic climate we are both doing well.<p>The problem here, and why I think trends like "never married" and "living at home" are up, is that even though we make a very good wage we still aren't middle class due to student debt. So instead of buying a house we pay over $3k each month on our student debt. Instead of purchasing new cars and a house (thus pumping money back into the economy) we have to pay rent.<p>The point of this post is that even if you are one of the lucky ones to get a well paying job right out of college you'll most likely have to put off purchases that used to be the norm for middle class.
While interesting, it leaves me wanting to filter down and isolate different categories to see how they may impact other numbers. Its difficult to really understand what is driving these trends on its own.
Interesting to see how even though % with bachelor degrees has grown since 1980, salaries have decreased and poverty has increased. Obviously, not all correlated, but still interesting.
35+ y/o here.<p>Every time I hear things like this I call up my mother and thank her for having me earlier than later.
Also, I did not like the interface. I'd rather all the data was just <schplat!> there in one map.