2012-02-09 "Survey finds young adults struggling economically"

from "Associated Press [http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Survey-finds-young-adults-struggling-economically-3170365.php]:
Washington --
Squeezed by a tight job market, young Americans are especially struggling. They have suffered bigger income losses than other age groups and are less likely to be employed than at any time since World War II.
An analysis by the Pew Research Center, released Thursday, details the impact of the recent recession on the attitudes of a generation of mostly 20- and 30-somethings.
The survey found that 41 percent of Americans believe that younger adults have been hit harder than any other group. At least 69 percent also said it's more difficult for today's young adults than their parents' generation to pay for college, find a job, buy a home or save for the future.
Only a third of people ages 18 to 34 rated their financial situation as "excellent" or "good," compared with 54 percent for those age 65 and over. In 2004, before the recession began, about half of both young and older adults rated their own financial situation highly.
"Young workers are on the bottom of the ladder, and during a recession like we've had, it's often hard for them to hold on," said Kim Parker, associate director of Pew's Social & Demographic Trends project. She noted that some have been heavily involved in the nationwide "Occupy" protests over economic disparity.
Still, Parker noted that despite the challenges, young adults were more upbeat about the future than older adults: Only 9 percent said they didn't think they would ever have enough money to live the life they want, a share unchanged from before the recession.
In contrast, 28 percent of adults 35 and up don't foresee making enough in the future.
The latest numbers offered a mixed picture for young adults, many of them minorities, whose strong turnout and 2-to-1 support for Barack Obama in 2008 buoyed him to the presidency.
As voters this year point to the economy as their top concern, a slew of recent census data have underscored the difficulties of young adults: in record numbers, they are shunning long-distance moves in the economic downturn to live with their parents, delaying marriage and raising kids out of wedlock - if they're becoming parents at all.
At risk of becoming a "lost generation," many young adults are going back to school or scraping by on waitressing, bartending and odd jobs.