ArcaMax

I was recently with a college friend (“Alex”) who pronounced that this generation of young college graduates has a problem: They are not willing to sacrifice in order to plow ahead amid a challenging economic environment.

He said to me: “When I graduated in 1986, I had roommates, moved far outside of the city, which required a long commute, and just stopped spending!”

You may be thinking, “OK, Boomer... you are just an old guy complaining about the younger generation.” Maybe, but Alex is familiar with the younger demographic because he has two children who are in their 20s, both of whom have jobs, which made his comments curious to me.

Is this just a random example of an oldster calling into question the current generation’s lack of grit?

Instead of arguing at a BBQ, I decided to dive into the data and present Alex with the facts on the ground. Back in August 1986, the national unemployment rate was a lot higher than it is today: 6.9 percent vs. last month’s reading of 4.1%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics didn’t slice and dice the data before the year 2000, but what we know is that 40 years ago, the unemployment rate for 20-24 years old was 10.7%, and today, that rate stands at 7.1%.

That said, this year, “college-educated workers ages 22 to 34 years old have only seen worse unemployment in the past two decades during the pandemic and the economy’s slow rebound from the 2007-09 recession,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Alex remembered that his first salary after college was just $20,000 or 25,000, which sounded like peanuts, until you find that median household income in 1986 was $24,900, so pretty good for a first job. The number is even more impressive when adjusted for inflation, which puts the equivalent at $75,793 in today’s dollars. For reference, the most recent Census figure for median household income is $83,730 for 2024 (2025/2026 data has not been published yet.)

Now the rent side of the ledger. Zillow's rent index put the typical U.S. asking rent at $1,962 in July 2026, up 2.3% from a year earlier—the fastest pace of rent growth in more than a year, as a construction boom that had been giving renters leverage starts to fade.

Zillow calculates that a household needs roughly $78,488 in annual income to comfortably afford that typical rent, using the standard rule that housing costs shouldn't eat up more than 30% of gross income. Compare that to NACE's overall average starting salary, and you can see the gap immediately: Most new grads outside of tech and engineering are not clearing that bar on one income alone, especially in the priciest metros.

Here's the number that really stopped me: How does 2026 stack up against 1986?

NACE's own historical Salary Survey data puts the average bachelor's-degree starting salary in 1986 at $24,752. Adjusted for inflation using BLS consumer price data, that's roughly $75,500 in today's dollars—meaningfully more than this year's $68,873 average.

Meanwhile, the Census Bureau's decennial housing data put the national median monthly rent at about $365 in the mid-1980s, which works out to roughly $1,112 in 2026 dollars — well under today's $1,962 typical asking rent.

Put the two together and you get the real story: a 1986 grad handed roughly 18% of their gross starting pay to rent each month. A 2026 grad is handing over closer to 34%. Starting pay hasn't kept pace with inflation, and rent has badly outpaced it—that's the affordability squeeze in one stat, and it's why this doesn't feel like your imagination or your parents exaggerating by saying, "How easy we had it!"

So what do I tell the 20-somethings (and their worried parents) who ask?

1. Do the math on your actual offer, not the national average. A $68,000 offer in Cleveland stretches far further than the same offer in a coastal metro pushing $4,000+ median rents, like New York City is right now. Localize every number before you panic or celebrate.

2. A roommate isn't a step backward—it's a rate cut on your first "loan." Splitting a two-bedroom is one of the most effective ways to close the gap between an entry-level salary and that 30% affordability threshold.

3. Negotiate. With starting salaries actually rising across most majors this year, employers have shown they have room to move. It costs you nothing to ask.

The bottom line: This job market is genuinely tougher than 1986 in the way that matters most—the rent-to-paycheck math—and rent isn't making it easy. But "tougher" isn't "impossible." It just means the first budget you build matters more than it did for your parents.

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(Jill Schlesinger, CFP, is a CBS News business analyst. A former options trader and CIO of an investment advisory firm, she welcomes comments and questions at askjill@jillonmoney.com. Check her website at www.jillonmoney.com)

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