They’re being called Boomerang Generation. Most of America’s college graduates are moving back home with their parents after walking across the stage.A recent poll by the marketing and research firm Twentysomething, Inc. reported that 85 percent of college seniors plan to move back into their parents’ houses after they receive their baccalaureate degrees. That is up from 67 percent in 2006.
Today’s college graduates face high unemployment (approximately 15 percent) due to a tough job market. They are also struggling to pay back the student loans they were forced to take out as a result of skyrocketing tuition and insufficient need-based grant money.
The Project on Student Debt reports that college students who graduated in 2009 carried an average of $24,000 in student loan debt, up six percent from the previous year. Meanwhile, unemployment for recent college graduates climbed from 5.8 percent in 2008 to 8.7 percent in 2009 – the highest annual rate on record for college graduates aged 20 to 24.