Even though the economy is slowly improving, more and more college students are moving back home after graduating. It's no surprise considering that at the same time that they are in school either full or part-time student, they must also balance future planning for a life potentially on their own and, if they live in a city, in an expensive place. With 67 percent of Millennials choosing to move back in with mom and dad, it raises the question: how okay is it that we've migrated from the euphemistic, "if you still live with your mother, you're a failure" mindset?
I would say it's very okay because it suits the times. The economy of our parent's era that allowed them to receive a majority of financial aid in the form of grants due to colleges being heavily subsidized by the state, and occupy high-wage, low effort jobs is long gone. Though Millennials have less house and car related debt, it's replaced heavily by student loan debt, the average owed by a graduate with a bachelor's degree being $30,000. From this alone, a young adult in 2015 will undoubtedly have many more money worries than a young adult in the 1970s. PEW Social Trends states that, "On an annual basis, unemployment among 18- to 34-year-olds peaked at 12.4 percent in 2010. As of the first third of 2015, unemployment among young adults in this age group was 7.7 percent, nearly 40 percent below the peak."
Due to the Great Recession of 2008, more students enrolled in college than before to better their odds of obtaining a job once they got out and to bide their time. That move wasn't necessarily in vain, it just depends on where you expect to work; The Wall Street Journal states that, "while just over half of all cities have hit record employment levels, almost one-third are expected to remain short of that mark by the end of 2016." Older Midwestern communities are quoted as recovering the slowest. Below the same source is a chart that shows the Metropolitan area of "New York-Newark-Jersey City, N.Y.-N.J.-Pa." projected to have an unemployment rate of 5.1 percent in 2016. Indianapolis and Carmel, IN are projected for an unemployment rate of 4.6 percent in the same year (U.S. Conference of Mayors, IHS Global Insight).
With this brief overview of our current financial situation and job market, I'd say it'd be to your added benefit to move in with the parents and save up for a bit. With the last Great Recession ending in 2009, we're probably overdue for another one and more money now can't hurt later.
