Early Living Together, Marriage and Parenting Benefits some Young Adults

Young people are always encouraged to complete their education and postpone marriage and children to achieve more rewarding lifestyles. However, a Penn State study found that for some young adults, getting married or living together and having children have provided positive benefits.

"In industrial countries, young people age 18 to 25 are expected to explore their identity, work and love by delaying marriage and parenthood," says lead author Alan Booth, distinguished professor of sociology, human development and demography. "It is believed that those individuals who fail to postpone these family transitions miss out on better career opportunities, make poor choices on partners, and may experience problems.

"However, our research has shown that early family choices may be a productive option for many young adults, especially those who are disadvantaged with respect to family income, parental education and structure, mother-child relationship, verbal ability, school attachment and delinquent behavior," he notes.

Booth, Elisa Rustenbach, graduate student in sociology, and Susan McHale, professor of human development and family studies, examined the family and personal characteristics of more than 8,000 young adults who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Half of the sample made an early family transition and half did not over a five-year period.

The researchers compared the depressive symptoms of those who made a transition with those who did not, and found very few differences in depressive symptoms between the two groups.

"The only exception was women who experienced a breakup of their live-in relationship. They were more likely to see an increase in depression compared to women who did not break up with the live-in partner or did not make a transition," Booth notes. Only 14 percent of those who made a transition were in this category.

The researchers selected depressive symptoms as a measure of wellbeing because they are associated with many types of adversity such as poor physical health, unemployment and harsh family relationships, and apply to males and females and people of all ages.

"The findings are even more remarkable when we take into account that young adults who transitioned into early families were more likely to come from low-income families, had parents with lower levels of education and likely lived in a household with one or no biological parents," Booth says.

In low-income families, teens may experience a divisive home environment and parents with poor parenting skills. Leaving to live together, marry or have children may provide an opportunity to escape from an unloving home and create a more positive family, according to the study.

The difference between men and women on early family transitions and protective family factors requires more study, however, he adds.

"Most research on emerging adulthood has been on college students," Booth notes. "Our study highlights the importance of study early family transitions in context, in light of the range of opportunities open to a person. Post-high school experiences of young adults are more diverse than popular belief, and early co-habitation or marriage and parenting may be productive for many young people, at least over the short haul."

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Employee Confidence Index Slips to Its Lowest Level this Year

The number of U.S. workers expressing confidence in the economy and in their personal
employment situation continued its decline in November, according to a recent survey from Spherion Corporation (NYSE: SFN) of 3,014 working adults.

The Spherion Employee Confidence Index, a monthly gauge of overall worker confidence, decreased by 3.5 points to 52.9 in November, its lowest level seen this year. The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Spherion, reveals that fewer workers believe there are more jobs available and that the economy is getting stronger. Despite this, more than three-quarters of workers believe it is unlikely that they will lose their job in the next 12 months.

According to the survey, the percentage of workers who expressed confidence in their own job security increased two percentage points from 77 percent in October to 79 percent in November, while the percentage of workers who felt confident in the future of their current employer decreased four percentage points from October to 61 percent. Nearly one-third of workers, or 32 percent, reported that it was likely that they would seek new jobs in the next 12 months, a decrease of two percentage
points from last month.

"It appears that the volatile stock market, credit situation, housing slowdown and continued anxiety over fuel prices may be fueling apprehension among workers," says Roy Krause, president and chief executive officer of Spherion Corporation. "Though this month's Index decreased, data aggregated from specific survey questions indicate a clear majority of workers remain optimistic and confident about their own job security and the future of their current employer. Furthermore, the data shows that slightly fewer workers intend to seek new jobs in the next 12 months, which is could be good news for employers focused on retaining top performers. When considered along with a comparatively low 4.7 percent unemployment rate and continued job growth in industries such as professional services, healthcare and hospitality, we believe that the overall job market remains strong."

Confidence Levels Hit Lowest Level of the Year: The Spherion Employee Confidence Index dropped to its lowest level this year, decreasing 3.5 points to 52.9 in November. The Index, which measures workers' confidence in their personal employment situation and optimism in the macroeconomic environment, reveals that more workers were apprehensive about the economy, job market and the future of their current employers.

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Birds of a Feather: Analysis Suggests People of Similar Income, Education Gravitate Toward Same Neighborhoods

Residential neighborhoods throughout U.S. metropolitan areas have become increasingly divided into high- and low-unemployment sections, and an analysis by an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis suggests that people may be "sorting"themselves by both income and education.

The analysis was conducted by Christopher Wheeler, writing in theMarch/April issue of Review, the Reserve Bank's bimonthly journal of economic and business issues. The publication is also available online at the St. Louis Fed's web site.

The rate of unemployment is one of the most basic indicators used togauge the economy's health. As the economy fluctuates between periods ofexpansion and recession, corresponding changes in the rate of unemploymentare observed.

Between 1980 and 2000, the aggregate national unemployment rate fell from 6.3 percent to 3.9 percent, suggesting that workers in the United States faced better unemployment prospects in 2000 than in 1980.

"Yet, underlying these figures," says Wheeler, "is a trend that is not widely known: Unemployed workers became increasingly concentrated in certain neighborhoods within the nation's metropolitan areas. That is, neighborhoods in the United States became increasingly polarized into two groups: those with high rates of unemployment and those with low rates."

Wheeler investigated three possible explanations for this trend:

• Urban decentralization; that is, the gradual movement of people from the central cities to the suburbs. "This may have reduced the employment opportunities of households that continue to live in historical city centers," says Wheeler, "thereby creating a cluster of joblessness within those inner-cities."
• Changes in the labor market, such as declining union membership and the shift of employment away from manufacturing toward other sectors, may have reduced the employment opportunities for workers in certain neighborhoods more than others. "For example," says Wheeler, "if a city's low-to-middle-income communities are populated primarily by manufacturing workers, a decline in the manufacturing sector could result in higher unemployment in those areas. By the same token, if the residents of another neighborhood are employed predominantly in high-paying professional services, then a rise in the demand for those services may result in more jobs."
• Possible increase in the extent to which skilled and un-skilled workers are segregated across residential areas. "In other words, independent of either urban decentralization or shifts in union and industrial activity, the degree to which high- and low-skilled workers live in the same neighborhoods may have decreased over time could lead to a rising concentration of unemployed people." Analyzing unemployment data across nine broad industrial sectors, Wheeler finds little evidence to support the first two explanations. His results, however, did reveal a strong association between unemployment concentration and measures of both income segmentation and the segregation of college graduates across neighborhoods.

"A rising concentration of those who are unemployed seems to be related to an increase in the extent to which households have separated themselves into certain neighborhoods by both income and education," concludes Wheeler.


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