I’ve long thought it’s tough growing up as a kid these days, what with social media and the world around them generally going to hell. It’s not great being a young adult looking for work, either.

Reports The New York Times in this gift link:

Job openings have been trending down and are below prepandemic levels even as layoffs have remained low. A result has been a broad hiring stasis among employers that has hurt all new entrants to the labor market, a group that includes young workers with college degrees — and those without them.

“There’s just a general slowdown in hiring and less churn,” said Adam Ozimek, the chief economist at the Economic Innovation Group, a nonpartisan think tank. “And so those who need their first jobs are probably disproportionately affected ….”

A possible contributing factor is that the labor market’s cool-down in the past few years has been concentrated in industries that generally attract young graduates, including technology, media, accounting and consulting. More people are also graduating with college degrees, heightening the competition for entry-level white-collar jobs.

Add to this the falling value of some graduate degrees, according to The Washington Post.

Graduate degrees in medicine, law and pharmacy generally have the highest return on investment. By contrast, degrees in popular fields such as social work, psychology, and curriculum and instruction may actually have a zero to negative return after factoring in the full cost.

This dynamic has all sorts of consequences for young adults. For example, coupled with rising prices and college debt, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult for them to buy a house. 

Nevertheless, Uncle Sam spends a lot more on retirees than other age groups.

Americans age 65 and older — generally part of the baby-boom generation or Silent Generation — received an estimated $2.7 trillion in federal outlays last year, six times as much as the $449 billion for Americans under 26 years old.