Out Of Work Adult Children Often Live With Parents

Job status is one of the biggest predictors of adult children living at home says Gallup

Moving out of the family home after graduating from college used to be the norm. But it’s not any more.

It seems that when adult children are unemployed it often affects their parents as well. While marital status is the number one predictor, employment status ranks as the second-most-important predictor of whether or not kids move out on their own once they’re beyond college age according to a report from Gallup* dated February, 2014. Of adults aged 24 to 34, Gallup found that 67 percent of those living on their own are employed full time, compared with 50 percent of those still living with their parents.

The unemployment rate, as calculated by Gallup, among those in the workforce is twice as high for post-college-aged adults still living with their parents (14.6 percent) as it is for their counterparts who are not living with their parents (7.1 percent).

Education was also an important factor. Gallup found that of the same age group, 28 percent of those living with their parents had a college degree, while 38 percent of those living on their own had a college degree.

*Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Aug. 7-Dec. 29, 2013, on the Gallup Daily tracking survey, with a random sample of 3,445 adults, aged 18-34, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, who report they are currently living at home with their parents. To read the complete report visit Gallup.