Cue the montage/dance party music from an episode of Girls: it turns out if you're in your 20s and still reliant on your parents for money, you're far from alone. In fact, according to a recent New York Times article, 40 percent of 22- to 24-year-olds still get financial help from their parents, and the number of twentysomethings relying on their parents for support changes based on the type of profession that they are pursuing. Young adults in the arts and in STEM fields are the most reliant, with 53 percent and 47 percent respectively, and young adults in "blue collar and the military" and "personal services" rely the least, with 30 percent and 29 percent, respectively.
That being said, the amount of money they take from their parents also varies by field. The overall average is $250 a month, or $3,000 a year — which is no small sum to sneeze at, but also very indicative of the current job climate for Millennials looking for work right outside of school. Not only are many Millennials struggling to support themselves in graduate schools, but the unemployment rate for the generation compared to the rest of the population is a staggering 12.8 percent, versus the 4.9 percent national average.
There are a number of possible contributing factors to this, be it Millennials' attitudes about work, the financial difficulty of pursuing higher education, or simply the rising cost of living not keeping up with starting rate salaries. But it's not all in Millennials' heads; as often as we seem to hear the older generation shaking their fists from their lawns about how lazy and entitled we are, it turns out even Baby Boomers agree that Millennials are having a rough go in the job market. In a recent survey, 80 percent of old respondents agreed that it's harder for this generation to get its start in life, compared to only 68 percent of Millennials agreeing with the statement. (So basically, we're worse off than we thought? Comforting.)
All this is to say: if you're still reliant on your parents for some support, don't feel too badly about it. More of your fellow Millennials are than you think — and as the New York Times points out, if you live in a big city rather than a more suburban area, you're 30 percent more likely to be getting parental financial support. Plus a lot of that support parents offer also comes from lump sums rather than month-to-month support, like down payments or broker's fees on apartments. And besides, it turns out that parental support for twentysomethings has been steadily rising in the past few decades — so odds are if you have kids one day, you're going to be footing the bill for a hell of a lot, too. (Oh, karma, you beautiful witch.)
