Amid reports of a tough job market and rising costs of living, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that majorities of Americans say young adults have it harder today financially than their parents’ generation did. The findings, published July 17, 2026, show that pessimism about generational economic opportunity has grown since the last comparable survey in 2021.
Job-finding concern surges since 2021
The shares of U.S. adults who say it is harder for young adults now to achieve several financial milestones have gone up since 2021. The biggest jump is in the share saying it is harder to find a job. Most adults, 64 percent, say it is harder for young people to find a job today, up from 39 percent who said the same in 2021.
Just 15 percent say it is easier, down from 40 percent five years ago.
The survey was conducted among 10,091 U.S. adults from May 4 to 17, 2026, with every participant a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel. That panel is designed to represent the views of all U.S. adults, giving the results a broad national reach.
Homeownership seen as the steepest climb
Buying a home is another milestone that Americans say is harder for young adults these days: 87 percent say this today, up from 70 percent in 2021.
The perception tracks closely with economic data. A separate Pew analysis published June 24, 2026, found that the inflation-adjusted median home value rose 30 percent, from $269,600 to $350,000, between 2019 and 2024, while inflation-adjusted median household income for households headed by those under 40 rose only 9 percent, from $92,700 to $100,900. That pushed the price-to-income ratio from 2.9 in 2019 to 3.5 in 2024.
About 60 percent of metro areas in the U.S. are now classified as unaffordable, based on the ratio of the median home value to median income for households headed by those under 40, across 160 metro areas with available data.
That structural affordability gap helps explain why attitudes have hardened so noticeably across age groups.
College costs and savings also draw concern
Americans are roughly 10 percentage points more likely today than in 2021 to say it is harder for young adults to pay for college and save for the future.
The trend reflects a broader perception that the traditional building blocks of financial stability, steady employment, an affordable home, manageable tuition and a retirement nest egg, have all become less accessible within a single generation.
Those broader anxieties connect to patterns that Pew has examined across multiple dimensions of American life. Its latest Pew study on civic engagement found similar generational divides shaping how Americans participate in public life.
Young adults themselves feel it most
Young adults are more likely than older adults to say most financial milestones are more challenging today than in the past. The age gap is largest when it comes to finding a job: 75 percent of adults ages 18 to 29 say this is harder for today’s young adults than it was for their parents’ generation.
That compares with about two-thirds of those ages 30 to 49 (66 percent) and 58 percent of those 50 and older.
Young adults are also more likely than other age groups to say that it is harder today to buy a home, pay for college and cover basic expenses.
The convergence of those pressures may also be reshaping social life more broadly. Separate research has found that Americans are shedding close friendships at a significant rate, a trend that analysts link in part to the financial and logistical constraints facing younger generations.
The Pew findings add statistical weight to a widely shared cultural narrative. The Center’s analysis was designed to examine whether Americans think it is easier or harder for young adults to achieve certain financial milestones today than it was for their parents’ generation. Across every milestone measured, the answer, by growing margins, was harder.
