A new study by the Bay Area Council has found the cost of living in the area may send millennials packing, leaving experts to fear the region's thriving tech industry will suffer. Michelle Roberts reports. (Published Thursday, March 30, 2017) 
 
 The milestones of adulthood for today's millennials: economic security and finishing school — not rushing to get married and have a family. 
 
 And once they are married, young women in America are less likely to see homemaking as a career. 
 
 The share of young women 25 to 34 who opted to forgo outside employment in favor of managing a household plunged from 43 percent in 1975 to just 14 percent last year, according to the Census Bureau. Census demographers believe that number could be among the lowest on record. 
 
 It's part of a long-running trend of higher educational attainment for women but also a reflection of changing attitudes among Americans. 
 
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 Hurricane Irma brought strong winds and rain to South Florida over the weekend, flooding streets and causing power outages across the state. Follow a livestream of continuing coverage of Hurricane Irma as it barrels through Florida. Get the latest on Irma from NBC 6 anywhere, anytime by downloading our apps for iOS and Android. Click here for full coverage of the powerful storm. (Published Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017) 
 
 "We see more young women who have a college degree and are in the labor force, and they are waiting to get married and have kids," said Jonathan Vespa, a demographer at the Census Bureau. Demographers found changing U.S. sentiment in which more than half of Americans now believe marrying and having children are not important signs of reaching independence. 
 
 More young adults than before are focusing first on receiving a bachelor's degree or higher and securing a job. They are still actively pursuing romantic relationships but opting to cohabitate or court mates while living with mom and dad. 
 
 The findings were part of a census report released Wednesday tracking the changing economics and demographics of young adults from 1976 to 2016, with a focus on the current generation of 25 to 34 year olds, known as millennials. 
 
 Many analysts had expected that as the economy improved, younger adults would increasingly move out on their own, either living independently or starting families. But that hasn't happened. 
 
 Vespa said educational gains for women in particular have led to broader changes as to how Americans view work and family. 
 
 Some things to know: 
 
 MARRIAGE ON HOLD BUT ROMANCE CONTINUES 
 
 Young adults may be delaying marriage but that doesn't mean they aren't finding love. 
 
 Since 1975, young people living with a boyfriend or girlfriend jumped more than 12 times, from less than 1 percent to 9 percent last year. It's part of a growing cohabitation trend of couples living together before marriage. 
 
 Not only are they living together, but they are doing so at around the same age that previous generations would marry. 
 
 Since the 1980s, the age when people cohabitate has remained steady at 22 while the age of marriage has risen from 22 to 27 for women. 
 
 Still, by and large, young adults were more likely to be living with mom and dad last year. 
 
 About 23 percent lived with their parents, compared to 20 percent who were living with a spouse. 
 
 Hurricane Irma’s Path of Destruction 
 
 Hurricane Irma has cut a huge path of destruction through several Caribbean islands on its path toward the United States. See what the aftermath looked like as some of those islands began to recover. (Published Friday, Sept. 8, 2017) 
 
 SOME MEN FALLING BEHIND 
 
 Women are making some gains in the labor force. 
 
 While the share of young men in the workforce is largely unchanged from 1975 at 84 percent, the level of young women working rose from 50 percent to 70 percent. 
 
 In addition, four decades ago almost all young women who chose not to work cited "taking care of home and family" as the main reason. But by 2016, less than half of young women who were out of the labor force were homemakers. 
 
 Meanwhile, more young men are falling to the bottom of the income ladder. In 1975, 25 percent of young men ages 25 to 34 had incomes of less than $30,000 per year. But by 2016, the share of lower income male earners had risen to 41 percent. 
 
 Women saw some economic gains, with median income of working women aged 25 to 34 rising from $23,000 to $29,000. Among higher income earners of $60,000 or more, the share of women grew from 2 percent to 13 percent. Still, the median income of young women remains $11,000 lower than the income of young men. 
 
 Copyright Associated Press ||||| Millennial workers, those ages 18 to 35, are just as likely to stick with their employers as their older counterparts in Generation X were when they were young adults, according to recently released government data. 
 
 And among the college-educated, Millennials have longer track records with their employers than Generation X workers did in 2000 when they were the same age as today’s Millennials. 
 
 Every two years the U.S. Department of Labor collects data on how long workers have been with their current employer as part of the Current Population Survey. Though the data have been collected periodically since the early 1950s, the present tenure questions began in 1996, so we can only compare Millennial workers with Gen X workers when they were the same age. 
 
 In January 2016, 63.4% of employed Millennials, the generation born between 1981 and 1998, reported that they had worked for their current employer at least 13 months. In February 2000, somewhat fewer 18- to 35-year-olds (59.9%) – most of whom are today’s Gen Xers – reported similar job tenure. Looking at young workers with longer tenures, 22% of Millennial workers had been with their employer for at least five years as of 2016, similar to the share of Gen X workers (21.8%) in 2000. 
 
 One factor that may be contributing to Millennials staying with employers longer is their relatively high levels of education, which is typically associated with longer tenure. Among 25- to 35-year-old workers in 2016, 38% of Millennial men and 46% of Millennial women had completed at least a bachelor’s degree. The Gen X workforce back in 2000 had significantly lower levels of educational attainment: 31% of male 25- to 35-year-old workers had finished college, as had only 34% of female workers. 
 
 These college-educated Millennials are sticking with their jobs longer than their Gen X counterparts. About 75% of college-educated 25- to 35-year-olds (75% for men and 74% for women) had worked for their employer at least 13 months in 2016. Back in 2000, somewhat fewer college-educated Gen X women (70%) had been on the job that long. Among college-educated Gen X men, 72% had similar tenure. 
 
 The increasing job tenure of college-educated Millennials is consistent with a decline in employer switching among all working-age adults since the 1980s. The reasons for the decline are not well understood. Recent research indicates that the rise of dual-career households, the decline in middle-skill jobs, occupational licensing and the need for employees to retain health insurance cannot account for much of the decline in job-switching. 
 
 The longer tenure of college-educated Millennials compared with that of Gen X workers does not necessarily translate into higher wages or more job security. They may be sticking with their current employers due to a dearth of opportunities to get a better job with a different employer. But, in any event, their reported tenure makes clear that the “job-hopping Millennial” characterization does not fit the broad Millennial workforce. 
 
 The trend is different among less-educated young adults. For example, among Millennials with a high school education, 70% of men and 69% of women had been with their employer at least 13 months. These proportions are similar to their high-school-educated counterparts among today’s Gen Xers in 2000 (72% for men and 71% for women). 
 
 Topics: Educational Attainment, Millennials, Business and Labor, Education, Work and Employment, Generations and Age ||||| For First Time In 130 Years, More Young Adults Live With Parents Than With Partners 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Education Images/UIG via Getty Images Education Images/UIG via Getty Images 
 
 For the first time in more than 130 years, Americans ages 18-34 are more likely to live with their parents than in any other living situation, according to a new analysis by the Pew Research Center. 
 
 In that age group, 32.1 percent of people live in their parents' house, while 31.6 live with a spouse or partner in their own homes and 14 percent live alone, as single parents or in a home with roommates or renters. The rest live with another family member, a nonfamily member or in group-living situations such as a college dorm or prison. 
 
 toggle caption Pew Research Center/NPR 
 
 Pew notes that this is not a record high percentage for the number of young people living at home — in 1940, for instance, approximately 35 percent of people in that age range lived at home. 
 
 But back then, living with a spouse or partner was even more popular than that. Today not so: More people choose an alternative living situation, and out of the crowded field of choices, life with Mom and/or Dad has become the top pick for millennials. 
 
 Well — some millennials. Men, for starters. 
 
 American men ages 18-34 live with their parents 35 percent of the time, and with a spouse or partner 28 percent of the time. For women, the numbers are nearly reversed; 35 percent live with a partner, while 29 percent live with their parents. 
 
 Living with mom or dad: More common for sons than daughters https://t.co/7SxlYSwEBi pic.twitter.com/gQTFUJZKiU — Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) May 24, 2016 
 
 Less educated young adults are also more likely to live with their parents than are their college-educated counterparts — no surprise, Pew notes, given the financial prospects in today's economy. 
 
 Black and Hispanic young people, compared with white people, are in the same situation. 
 
 For black people in particular, the "new" milestone isn't so new at all. Black young adults have been more likely to live with their parents than in any other situation since 1980. Today, 36 percent of black millennials live with their parents, while 17 percent live with a spouse or partner. 
 
 Meanwhile, taken as a whole, women, white people, Asian/Pacific Islanders and people with bachelor's degrees are still more likely to live with spouses or partners than with their parents. 
 
 But the overall trend is the same for every demographic group — living with parents is increasingly common. 
 
 (Young Americans are still less likely to live with their parents than their southern European friends. In Macedonia, more than 70 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds reportedly live at home, Pew says.) 
 
 For many millennials, Pew's conclusions might seem both unsurprising and easy to explain: The Great Recession happened, of course! 
 
 But the rise in the number of young adults living at home started before the economic crash — and so did the possible contributing factors. Male unemployment has been on the rise for decades, Pew says. Even those who have jobs are making less than they would have in their parents' day — for young men, Pew notes, inflation-adjusted wages have been falling since 1970. 
 
 And then fewer young people are married than in decades past. Even accounting for the increased popularity of cohabitation, there are just fewer paired-up 20-somethings and 30-somethings than there used to be. 
 
 In general, the study shows how dramatically the living situations of 18- to 34-year-olds have changed since 1880, when the data begin. 
 
 Living alone, as a single parent, or with roommates — once a rarity — is now the choice of 14 percent of people in that age group. And a full 25 percent of young men are now living with other family, nonfamily or group quarters. 
 
 Male prosperity rose steadily, and more and more men left the nest — until the '60s and '70s, when wages started to drop and more men stayed home. 
 
 And women? For decades women who worked were more likely to live with their parents than with a partner or spouse — because wives were discouraged from having jobs, per Pew's straightforward interpretation. 
 
 But now more and more young women have jobs, and it's unemployed women who are more likely to live with their parents. And yet, even as female prosperity rose, so did the number of young women living at home. 
 
 Pew speculated it might because of men's lower earnings keeping women from marrying and moving out. Seem plausible? The question might make for a fruitful conversation in households across America tonight ... just ask Mom to pass the peas and the theories.
– It seems to be a rite of passage that "young adults" in the US (classified as those between the ages of 18 and 34, per the US Census Bureau) take a bit of guff from the generations that preceded them. Millennials, ID'd by Pew Research as those born between 1981 and 1997, haven't escaped this fate, but while many label the current younger set as simply hanging out "in the basement playing video games," as USA Today notes, that's not quite the case. The Census Bureau released a population report Wednesday that looks back at the 18-34 demographic over the past four decades, comparing today's young adults to those going back to 1975. "If one theme describes how adulthood has changed over the last 40 years, it is growing complexity," the report notes. A few notable trends stand out, and the internet is buzzing about them: Parents who dread an empty nest can relax, because the Kansas City Star notes your millennial boarders may not be going anywhere anytime soon. In 2005, just 26% of young adults still shacked up with Mom and Dad, but that number settled in at around 34% in 2015—a 30% spike in just 10 years. Per the Miami Herald, millennials seem to look more highly upon a good education than their predecessors, with 37% boasting at least a bachelor's degree in 2016, compared with 23% in 1975. The extra schooling likely explains a drop homeownership among millennials, from 52% in 1975 to 29% today. You won't find millennials starting families as soon as they're done with that schooling, and women especially aren't as eager to be relegated to homemaker roles as past generations, NBC Washington reports. Economic security comes before marriage—and while about 84% of young men are in the workforce (a number that's stayed constant this whole time), that percentage has jumped from 50% to 70% for women since 1975. A separate study finds that the most popular brands among millennials are Victoria's Secret, Sephora, and Nike, reports Bloomberg. Pew Research dispels the myth that millennials are flakes when it comes to holding down a job, pointing out that millennials in 2016 stayed at their jobs for five years or longer at around the same numbers as Generation Xers did when they were the same age—and actually outpaced Gen Xers by a few percentage points when it came to sticking it out with an employer for 13 months or longer. Adulting classes for millennials might not be necessary after all, then?