51% of Millennials Have Grave Doubts About Their Future

A nationwide poll of graduating college students finds that 51 percent are extremely worried about their futures after graduation, and many feel their lives will not be as good as past generations. 

Also, 39 percent said they were not optimistic at all about finding a job in the first few months after school ends.

The poll of 801 graduating college seniors conducted by the Young America’s Foundation also found that 72 percent of respondents had filled out a job application, but a full 56 percent had never gotten a single interview for the effort. Twenty percent admitted to applying for 10 or more jobs.

In 2012, the unemployment rate for recent graduates stood at 7.7 percent.

“One of the most startling results from the poll,” YAF reported on May 21, “was that 37% of graduating seniors believe they will end up ‘worse off’ than their parents’ generation.”

A large number of the respondents also said that they don’t expect to able to afford their own place to live, with 44 percent saying they would have to move back in with mom and dad after school.

Finally, with school loan debt at an average of $29,400 per student–a number that has grown by six percent each year since 2008–students are finding that it is taking them sometimes a decade or more to pay back school loans.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.