The U.S. BLS released some interesting statistics on what people born in the early 1980’s are doing today in the labor market, school, and at home. The findings are from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, a nationally representative survey of about 9,000 young men and women who were born during the years 1980 to 1984
Here are some of the major findings.
•Women have more education: By 27 years of age, 32 percent of women had received a bachelor’s degree, compared with 24 percent of men. Nine percent of men were high school dropouts compared to 8 percent of women.
•Everybody changes jobs a lot!. Individuals born from 1980 to 1984 held an average of 6.2 jobs from ages 18 to 26. The
number of jobs held varies by education for women but not for men.
•Those without HS have a hard time getting a job. High school graduates who had never enrolled in college were employed an average of 68 percent of the weeks from ages 18 to 22, and 74 percent of weeks from ages 23 to 26. In comparison, those who had dropped out of high school were employed 51 percent of weeks from ages 18 to 22, and 57 percent of weeks from ages 23 to 26.
• Most are not married. Thirty-four percent of young adults were married at age 27, while 20 percent were cohabiting and 47 percent were single. On average, young adults with more education were more likely to be married and less likely to be cohabiting. Young adults who were single at age 27 were employed 70 percent of the weeks from ages 18 to26, compared to 77 percent of weeks for those who were married and 72 percent of weeks, for those who were cohabiting.
• The moms work outside of the home. Women with children in their household at age 27 were employed 65 percent of weeks from age 18 to 26 compared to 76 percent of weeks for women without children in their home. Conversely, men tended to work more weeks if they had children in the household than if they did not (79 percent of weeks versus 73 percent).