The Transition to Independence of Young Adults in the Western World: a Comparative Analysis.

Young people in the 21st century face the transition to adulthood in a very different way with respect to those of the same age in the 1980s. There are also wide differences across countries in the Western world. In this work we analyze the trends in the proportion of young adults working full-time, who achieved some sort of financial independence, and their living arrangements. Using the Luxemburg Income Study we look at six different countries – United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Netherlands – to give a cross-national comparison, and we compare outcomes in two points in time – mid-1980s and 2004 – to have an idea about the evolution of young adults’ behavior over decades. We find a general decreasing trend in the percentage working full-time, and earning a satisfactory level of wages. The situation is more positive for women, who are more active in the labor force in 2004 than in the mid-1980s, suggesting that males and females’ careers become more similar over time. In addition, there are differences across countries that cannot be entirely explained by structural factors and differences in labor markets, and that may be related to other aspects, like cultural and normative shifts.