What is the average 20 year old doing

What is the typical life experience for an American on the verge of turning 30? This is a hard question to answer, no matter who is asking. An irony of digital media is that the Internet distributes journalism, but it concentrates journalists.

The clustering force is only getting more centripetal: The share of reporting jobs in Los Angeles, NYC, and DC increased by 60 percent between and For that, one needs something else, like a national survey.

So, how useful that the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently published a report on the demographics of year-olds in the U. As a year-old reporting on the economy from New York, it was a particularly good orientation for me. The impression of young people in the U. Instead, the average year-old did not graduate from a four-year university, but she did start college; held several jobs, including more than two in the last three years; is not as likely to be married as her parents at this age, but is still likely to be living with somebody; is less likely to own a home than 15 years ago, but despite the story of urban renewal, is more likely to live outside of a dense urban area like Brooklyn or Washington, D.

Here are several more details from the BLS report and some similar surveys about year-olds:. The average year-old has not graduated from college. Perhaps the most surprising statistic is the huge diploma gap opening between men and women about to turn Jobs are still temporary for twentysomethings.

The average American has had more than seven jobs before she turns 29, and a third of them lasted less than six months. One might assume that job-hopping and short-term employment is just a part of being a teenager.

But Americans at all levels of education held an average of more than two jobs between ages 25 and The challenge of temporary employment is worse for young people without a high-school or college diploma. While an alarming amount of young people have little to no savings, "on the other end of the spectrum, some millennials seem to be taking steps to increase their savings account balances," the site reports.

While the amount you need in savings is highly personal, and specific dollar amounts can be arbitrary, Intuit 's Kimmie Greene offers a simple formula to help you figure out if you're setting aside enough money. That includes any retirement account contributions, matching funds from your company, cash savings or money you have invested elsewhere, like in index funds or with robo-advisers.

By age Have the equivalent of your annual salary saved. Greene's timeline is similar to the one recommended by retirement-plan provider Fidelity Investments , which says a good rule of thumb is to have the equivalent of your salary saved by age 30 and to have 10 times your final salary in savings if you want to retire by age Like this story?

Don't miss: 5 things to do right now if you want to double your savings. Skip Navigation. Jennifer Liu. Younger people are no exception.