Economic Mobility by Generation in US

In a recent report from Public Religion Research Institute on the Economic Values Survey of a random sample of 2,002 American adults conducted by landline and cell phone interviews from May 30, 2013 through June 16, 2013, it was found that nearly half of respondents (47%) state that their generation is worse off financially than their parent’s compared to 16% who say that their generation is doing about the same as their parent’s and 36% who say that their generation is better off than their parent’s.

The majority of respondents between the ages of 66 and 88 (Silent Generation) say they are better off than their parent’s generation (59%) while the majority of respondents between the ages of 18 and 33 (Millennials) say that they are worse off than their parent’s generation (58%). More than half of respondents between the ages of 34 and 48 (Generation X) also say that they are worse off than their parent’s generation (51%). Respondents between the ages of 49 and 67 (Baby Boomers) are nearly equally divided when comparing their generation to their parent’s (40% say that they are better off while 45% say that they are worse off).

Read more:
http://publicreligion.org/research/2013/07/economic-values-survey-07-2013/#.Ug4SGpK1GvM
http://publicreligion.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/2013-Economic-Values-Report-Final-.pdf
http://publicreligion.org/

Americans in the Lower Class

In a recent post for the Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends, Rich Morin and Seth Motel report that, in 2012, one-third of Americans say that they are in the lower class.  The report is based on data gathered by the Pew Research Center in a survey of 2,508 Americans. The question, “What class do you belong in?” was also asked of Americans in 2008 and 25% of respondents said that they were in the lower class. 

Individuals younger than 30 years (39% in 2012 and 25% in 2008) are increasingly likely to report being in the lower class. The number of Hispanics (40% in 2012 and 30% in 2008) and Whites (31% in 2012 and 23% in 2008) report that they are in the lower class has grown while Blacks have held steady at 33% in both surveys. 

Read more:
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/09/10/a-third-of-americans-now-say-they-are-in-the-lower-classes/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/author/rmorin/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/author/smotel/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/
http://www.pewresearch.org/

Low Population Mobility in European Union

A recent Economist article discusses the low cross-border population mobility within the European Union despite large variations in the unemployment rate across European nations.  This variation in unemployment rate can be seen in the first chart from the article, which shows Spain at approximately 23% unemployment as of March 2012 and Austria at less than 5%.  However, as the second graph from the article shows, few Europeans migrate within their countries and even fewer across countries in the European Union relative to the US, Canada and Australia.  The article suggests that this low mobility could be a result of language barriers, higher transaction fees and taxes for home-buyers and disincentives to move from large unemployment benefits, among other things.