CNN Spotlights Increasing Trend of Recent College Grads Moving Back Home After Graduation

According to CNN.com (which cites a recent poll from Twentysomething Inc.), "85% of college seniors planned to move back home with their parents after graduation last May".

This is up from 67% in 2006.

This is a far cry from the "old days" when a person graduated from college and then quickly found a job in their field of choice.

The harsh realities of the current economic environment are forcing many college graduates back home, as there are just not enough jobs out there for everybody. With the national unemployment rate nearing 10%, many recent graduates are finding themselves engaged in a vicious fight with more experienced workers for available jobs. Companies will almost always go with the more experienced option, which has left many college graduates out of luck and out of work.

Those college graduates who are willing to take lower-paying jobs are still finding it extremely difficult to live on their own, as they typically find themselves owing tens of thousands of dollars in student loans upon graduation.

Many recent college grads are receiving a stinging slap in the face once they start looking for work. The desired jobs, in many cases, are just not there, which leaves grads with the option of either accepting a "mediocre" job that doesn't pay as much as they would like or returning to school to continue their education.

The harsh reality is that there are usually dozens upon dozens of applications for every job opening, which means that employers can cherry-pick from the absolute best resumes. If you were running a company and had a job opening, who would you choose?

a) 24 year-old recent college grad with no experience
b) 34 year-old college grad with 10+ years of experience

Both applicants are willing to work for the same amount, which makes the choice, in many cases, very easy.

This highlights the problem that many college grads are facing - there is usually somebody with a more impressive resume that is applying for the same job, thanks to the sky-high national unemployment rate.

Combine an uncertain future with crushing debt loads and you have a recipe for an ever-increasing number of college grads needing to return home after graduation. You can expect this trend to continue until the national unemployment rate starts to meaningfully trend lower.

Source: CNN.com - Boomerang kids: 85% of College Grads Move Home

Filed under: The Economic Meltdown

2 COMMENTS - What Say You?

Comment by Mark on October 20, 2010 @ 9:04 pm

College is a huge scam. They teach you to be a sheep, and slave for others. Not only that, college has such price of education that you waste not only time but money borrowed at interest. At graduation you are lucky to get a $10/hr job and are saddled with almost a second mortgage worth of student loans.
The system creates slave wage workers and saddles them with debt from which they cannot escape(cannot eliminate student loans with bankruptcy anymore). Total SCAM. If you are going to borrow money at least try to start some kind of business instead of going to college to learn to be a slave to somebody else.

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Comment by Ryan on November 07, 2010 @ 10:34 pm

Funny you say college is a scam Mark. So you are not for the human species continuing higher learning? My first job out of college I made $27/hr. I'm 23. True story. Where's your $10/hr figure coming from?

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