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The report looked at New Yorkers ages 18 to 34, which represent 4.6 million people, or 23% of the state\u2019s population. That age group has declined about 2% in New York in the last decade even as the national population of young adults grew.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Seven of the state\u2019s regions have seen losses to this age group, including an 8.5% slide in the North Country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The report said that without aggressive action on affordable housing, expanded training pipelines and improved access to stable jobs, New York risks losing even more of the young workers it needs to fuel long-term growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For younger workers, employment is far from guaranteed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2023, New Yorkers ages 18 to 25 recorded an unemployment rate of 8.6%, more than double the statewide average.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The disparities are sharper by race. Black 20-to-24-year-olds faced an 18.2% unemployment rate in 2024, twice that of white peers. Young adults without college degrees are also far more likely to be unemployed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many who do find work are juggling school and part-time jobs. Nearly half of 18-to-25-year-olds are in school, and almost 88% of them work part-time in service-sector roles with a median workweek of just under 22 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Structural shifts are contributing to the instability, notably the influence of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
Nationally, tech industry entry-level jobs declined by 35% between 2020 and 2025. And service and administrative roles, typically heavily represented by young adults, have shrunk by up to 3.5% nationally, threatening sectors that are critical to the entry-level labor market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Early indications suggest that employers integrating AI are increasingly favoring experienced candidates over those seeking entry-level positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The job disparity is felt harder for young Blacks and Hispanics. Just under 200,000 young adults aged 18 to 25 are neither in the labor force nor in formal education. They represent about one in 10 in that age group in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Housing is eating up already tight budgets at alarming levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rents statewide have jumped 33% since 2013, while affordable units have disappeared.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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More than a third of young renters are \u201ccost-burdened,\u201d meaning they pay over 30% of their income for rent and utilities. More than 13% are spending at least half of their income for housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Homeownership has also plunged. Just 23% of New Yorkers ages 26 to 34 own a home, down from 31% two decades ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the Empire State, 22% of adults aged 26 to 34 are now living with their parents due to increased home prices and rental costs.<\/p>\n
Combined with food and transportation, housing accounts for more than two-thirds of young adults\u2019 expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Debt is also piling up fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Young adults now hold nearly 30% of all U.S. household debt\u00a0\u2014 up 67.8 since 2023, markedly faster than the rise among older Americans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In New York, 1.3 million young adults carry $40.5 billion in student loans, and the state\u2019s average balance, just over $30,300, is the second highest in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Delinquencies have surged since federal credit-reporting protections ended in late 2024, jumping from virtually zero to nearly 10% by the middle of this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A student celebrates her graduation from the University at Albany in 2021. A new report from the state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[844,9,24,63,1165,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-68272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-latestnews","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-state-politics","13":"tag-staten-island","14":"tag-staten-island-headlines","15":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}