Still living with folks

Pew’s analysis of US Census Bureau data finds that in spite of an improved labor market, “the nation’s 18 to 34yearolds are less likely to be living independently of their families and establishing their own households today than they were in the depths of the Great Recession.”

The unemployment rate for 18 to 34yearolds has decreased from its 2010 peak, while median weekly earnings for workers in that age group have risen marginally from a 2012 nadir. Yet the share of young adults living independently — that is, “in a household headed by the adult, his or her spouse or unmarried partner, or some other person not related to the adult” — was 67% in the first four months of 2015, down from 69% in 2010 and 71% in 2007.

Likewise, 26% of young adults were living in a parent’s home in the first third of this year, up from 24% in 2010 and 22% in 2007.

What gives? Why hasn’t economic recovery freed millennials from their childhood bedrooms?

It’s possible that millennials are caught in a pincer, with the more educated among them stymied by student debt and the less educated by a weaker labormarket recovery. Young people are also getting married later.

It’s also possible that the impetus to live with family isn’t entirely economic. “My suspicion is that both young adult and parental attitudes have changed as far as the social acceptability and desirability of young adults living with their parents,” Ri chard Fry, the author of the Pew report, explained by email.

Fry said he doesn’t have data to confirm his hunch, but he surmises that helicopter parents “have grown more accepting of their adult children living with them.” Likewise, young adults’ feelings about shacking up with mom and dad may have transformed: “There simply may not be any stigma associated with it,” Fry said.

Maybe millennials just like their parents. Or the basement.