Tag: Work

Young US adults living with parents at record high

parentlivingWhy are so many young adults in America living with their parents? According to a stunning Gallup survey that was recently released, nearly three out of every ten adults in the United States under the age of 35 are still living at home with Mom and Dad.

This closely lines up with a Pew Research Center analysis of Census data that looked at a younger sample of Americans which found that 36 percent of Americans 18 to 31 years old were still living with their parents.

That was the highest level that had ever been recorded. Overall, approximately 25 million U.S. adults are currently living at home with their parents according to Time Magazine. So what is causing all of this? Well, there are certainly a lot of factors.

Overwhelming student loan debt, a depressing lack of jobs and the high cost of living are all definitely playing a role. But many would argue that what we are witnessing goes far beyond temporary economic conditions. There are many that believe that we have fundamentally failed our young people and have neglected to equip them with the skills and values that they need to be successful in the real world.

More Americans than ever before seem to be living in a state of “perpetual adolescence”. As Gallup noted, one of the keys to adulthood is to be able to establish independence from your parents…

An important milestone in adulthood is establishing independence from one’s parents, including finding a job, a place to live and, for most, a spouse or partner, and starting one’s own family. However, there are potential roadblocks on the path to independence that may force young adults to live with their parents longer, including a weak job market, the high cost of living, significant college debt, and helping care for an elderly or disabled parent.

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult for young people to become financially independent. While they are in high school, we endlessly pound into their heads the need to go to college. Then we urge them to take out whatever loans that they will need to pay for it, ensuring them that they will be able to get “good jobs” which will enable them to pay off those loans when they graduate.

Of course a very large percentage of them find that there aren’t any “good jobs” waiting for them when they graduate. But because of the crippling loans that they have accumulated, they quickly realize that they have decades of debt slavery ahead of them.

Just consider the following numbers about the growth of student loan debt in the United States…

-The total amount of student loan debt in the United States has risen to a brand new all-time record of 1.08 trillion dollars.

-Student loan debt accounted for 3.1 percent of all consumer debt in 2003. Today, it accounts for 9.4 percent of all consumer debt.

-In the third quarter of 2007, the student loan delinquency rate was 7.6 percent. Today, it is up to 11.5 percent.

This is a student loan debt bubble unlike anything that we have ever seen before, and it seems to get worse with each passing year.

So when is the bubble going to finally burst?

Meanwhile, our young adults are still really struggling to find jobs.

For those in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket, it is getting even harder to find full-time employment. In June 2012, 47 percent of those in that entire age group had a full-time job. One year later, in June 2013, only43.6 percent of that entire age group had a full-time job.

And in many ways, things are far tougher for those that didn’t finish college than for those that did. In fact, the unemployment rate for 27-year-old college dropouts is nearly three times as high as the unemployment rate for those that finished college.

In addition, since Barack Obama has been president close to 40 percentof all 27-year-olds have spent at least some time unemployed.

So it should be no surprise that 27-year-olds are really struggling financially. Only about one out of every five 27-year-olds owns a home at this point, and an astounding 80 percent of all 27-year-olds are in debt.

Even if a young adult is able to find a job, that does not mean that it will be enough to survive on. The quality of jobs in America continues to go downhill and so do wages.

The ratio of what men in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket are earning compared to what the general population is earning is at an all-time low, and American families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.

Source: investmentwatchblog.com

Boeremeisie lost in translation

I’ve been feeling down, worried and most of all uninspired. The reason behind this psychological semi-breakdown I am having is the environment I work in and the state of our country. You get up for work every day; it pays your bills, keeps a roof over your head and food in your belly. It is something we all have to do: work, work, work, until you drop dead – is what my father always says. So I work and now I want to drop dead. What is the use of being at a job that firstly, you find no challenge in, secondly, gives you no growth, thirdly, is in an economy where jobs are really scarce and fourthly, (and my more important point), drains your soul, your sense of being? A job that breaks your spirit and tries to kill the person you are? I have been asking myself that for many months now.

You cannot explain the feeling to anyone who has not been in the same situation. You have been trying to keep your head high, trying to stay positive, trying to keep your sense of being a person, but the people at your workplace have a nasty habit of breaking your last thread of strength. When that last piece is barely hanging from your heart, you lose your sense of being, you lose your motivation, you lose your drive, you lose you. The things that used to hold joy in your life, becomes stale in your mouth and you sink deeper into the pit of darkness. You notice the world outside of your office and realize that you have been sinking into a hole of oppression, or “reverse apartheid”, of rape, of murder, of genocide. You find yourself living in a country that wants to eradicate your language, your history, your culture. You work with people who support those views, but there are also the few who don’t. You find yourself in a situation where you have trouble separating the country and the workplace and the pit becomes ever deeper. How do you ever deal with such feelings? How do you stand up for what you believe in without compromising your position?

Surviving in a multicultural country, constantly adapting to others and their way of doing things, their views, can make one feel depressed. Soon we will all be on anti-depressants just to cope with a day at the office.

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My solution: I decided to see a professional to help me with this particular situation and feelings I have. I started this blog/journal/diary – call it what you will. Maybe a daily or weekly dose of scribbles will get my frustrations out and I will be able to breathe the fresh air and freedom I so long for.

You probably don’t want to hear about my troubles, but maybe, just maybe you can give advice, or tell me to take a hike. Or maybe you can see yourself in my thoughts and find comfort in the journey we face together.

So let us start making sense of this life we find ourselves in and let us not forget where we come from and the strength of our forefathers (and -mothers).
Yolande du Plessis is a blogger from Pretoria. Read her opinions here.