The Pew Charitable Trusts - State and Consumer Initiatives about Economic Mobility Project

Pew Finds Post-Recession Boomers and Gen-Xers Are Less Prepared for Retirement than Older Generations

A new study from The Pew Charitable Trusts, Retirement Security Across Generations: Are Americans Prepared for Their Golden Years?, examines the savings behavior of five age groups before the Great Recession. The research also explores how wealth losses during the recession affected each group’s retirement security by calculating replacement rates.

Retirement Security Across Generations

This report explores how the Great Recession affected the wealth and retirement security of baby boomers relative to younger and older age groups.

National Journal: The American Dream, Downsized

Middle-class Americans are much more concerned about holding onto what they’ve got than in pursuing more. The Pew Economic Mobility project, the Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll, and other studies have arrived at similar conclusions. When Pew asked Americans in 2011 if they preferred financial stability or moving up the income ladder, 85 percent of respondents chose the safer, surer future.

Wall Street Journal: Even Brief Unemployment Can Have Long Consequences

The gloomy March jobs report from the Department of Labor includes this ominous figure almost 500,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force, a phenomenon that picks up as people go months and even years without finding work. But even

The Atlantic: How Bad Is the Job Market For College Grads? Your Definitive Guide

Young bachelor's holders are hurting. But they're still doing better than high-school grads, and their crisis has been vastly overstated.

Pew Explores Damaging Effects of Unemployment & Unexpected Wealth Losses on Mobility and Economic Security

A new study from The Pew Charitable Trusts, Hard Choices: Navigating the Economic Shock of Unemployment, examines how American families cope with unexpected financial setbacks and how those periods of economic uncertainty draw down financial resources. The report studies families across race and income levels, revealing different experiences resulting from unemployment and the difficult choices many of them face.

Hard Choices: Navigating the Economic Shock of Unemployment

This report examines how American families cope with unexpected financial setbacks, with a focus on how periods of unemployment affect family economic security and mobility.

Marketplace.org: Recovery From Job Loss: Easier for Whites Than Blacks

A new study out today by the Pew Economic Mobility Project looks at the role race and assets have in people’s ability to weather the economic hardships of sudden unemployment.

NPR: Americans Earn More Than Their Parents (With A Caveat), Study Says

Most Americans are earning more money than their parents, according to a new study from Pew's Economic Mobility Project. But those gains don't tell the whole picture.

Income and Wealth in America Across Generations

This interactive data tool takes a closer look at absolute mobility, making it possible to determine which Americans are more likely to surpass or fall short of their parents' income and wealth, and for the first time, by how much.

Deseret News: Economic Mobility Gains May be Due to Dual-income Families

If parents are happier when their children do better (financially), then there should be a lot of happy parents in the United States. But more American families reach that status today through dual incomes, according to a new report released Tuesday.

Washington Post: Obama’s Call to Action on Poverty

Some anti-child-poverty advocates are disappointed that President Obama didn’t call for a National Commission on Children as they’d hoped.

Pew Experts Respond to President's State of the Union Address

In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama raised two issues that are relevant to the work of The Pew Charitable Trusts: economic mobility and elections.

Economic Mobility: Reaction to the State of the Union & GOP Response

Economic mobility is a unifying and bipartisan idea discussed by both President Obama in his State of the Union address and Senator Marco Rubio in the GOP response. Erin Currier discusses drivers, such as education, savings, and neighborhood poverty, that impact people's ability to achieve the American Dream.

Reading Eagle: Report Shows College Education Still Pays Dividends

It seems just about everyone has heard about the plight of recent college graduates who are saddled with heavy debt, unable to find jobs in their chosen fields and stuck living at home with little to do except perhaps some low-paying work.

Seattle Weekly: Don't Brood: It Still Pays to Go to College

The recession and high national unemployment rates make life after college look worse than college itself, often leaving new graduates overqualified and underemployed.

How Much Protection Does a College Degree Afford?

This report provides an in-depth look at young college graduates’ employment opportunities as compared to less-educated groups.

Pew Report Finds Recent College Graduates Well-Protected Against Worst Effects of Recession

The newest research from Pew’s Economic Mobility Project reveals that a four-year college degree helped shield the latest graduates from a range of poor employment outcomes during the Great Recession, including unemployment, low-skill jobs, and lesser wages.

Examine Inequality’s Causes Before Prescribing Solutions

Fear and loathing of income inequality is both totally understandable and ultimately misplaced. A June study from Pew’s Economic Mobility Project finds that 84 percent of Americans have “higher family incomes than their parents did.”

BBC: Downward Mobility Haunts US Education

The idea of going to college—and the expectation that the next generation will be better educated and more prosperous than its predecessor—has been hardwired into the ambitions of the middle classes in the United States.

The Atlantic: The Great Recession's Devastating Toll on Disadvantaged Neighborhoods

As we move into a spiky world dominated by cities, the winners and losers are becoming ever clearer.

Bloomberg: Ranks of Poor Americans at Record High Even with Aid

The ranks of poor Americans remained at a record high number last year, even aftergovernment-aid programs such as food stamps, housing vouchers and heating subsidies were included, the U.S. Census Bureau said today.

Weathering the Great Recession

This issue brief from the Economic Mobility Project explores how residents of high- and low-poverty neighborhoods fared in terms of employment, wages, wealth, and housing losses during the Great Recession.

WBEZ: American Dreams

The latest installment of our Front & Center series examines the American dream deferred. We talk about the state of the American dream. What is it? How has the notion of it changed? Does it still exist for most folks? If not, what or who is standing in the way?

The Economist: Like Father, Not Like Son

In Horatio Alger's famous story, “Ragged Dick”, a plucky boot shiner improves his lot through hard work, honesty and learning his “three Rs” (reading, ’riting and ’rithmetic). The marks of his success are a suit, an office job and a new name, “Richard Hunter, Esq”.

Pew Research Relevant to Tonight’s Debate

The first presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will be held tonight in Denver and will focus on domestic policy. Pew provides a variety of resources on topics that may be addressed during the debate, including federal spending, economic mobility, unemployment, and U.S. voter participation.

Horatio Alger, RIP

There is also growing—though still nascent—evidence that from one American generation to the next, mobility is declining.

Occupy Wall Street Movement Has Faded, But the Frustration Lives On

Today's half-hearted demonstrations marking the birthday of the Occupy Wall Street movement served as a reminder that catchy slogans and funny hats do not add up to a political movement.

Study: Baby Boomers Are Not Stealing Younger Workers' Jobs

Baby Boomers are ruining it for everyone else, taking up all of the jobs and making life tougher for younger workers.

When Baby Boomers Delay Retirement, Do Younger Workers Suffer?

The notion that younger and older workers are engaged in a zero-sum game for a fixed number of jobs is called the “lump-of-labor” theory. This issue brief explores whether this theory has held true, and presents a series of key findings.

America Losing Sight of the Future

A recent analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts concluded that “Americans raised at the top and bottom of the income ladder are likely to remain there themselves as adults.” The study found that two-thirds of Americans end up in the exact same quintile of the income distribution as their parents, or below it.

Once Upon a Time in America: Rags to Riches Gone

Once upon a time in America, it was expected that most children would surpass their parents on the income ladder. However, a new study released by The Pew Charitable Trusts has found that although most Americans are earning a bit more than their parents, only a meager one-third of the current generation will surpass their parents in wealth and income and climb to a new rung on the economic ladder.

Supporting the American Dream through Economic Mobility

As both Republicans and Democrats plan their conventions and their policy platforms, the strength of the American Dream is of even greater concern than usual. Pew’s work on economic mobility is of particular relevance to these discussions.

Washington Post: Five Myths About the Middle Class

Both President Obama and Mitt Romney say they’ll support it. Many Americans say they’re in it. And virtually everyone says something must be done to help it. It’s the American middle class, and it’s the biggest talking point of the 2012 election—and one of the most misunderstood.

Bipartisan Economic Mobility Caucus Launched by U.S. Senators Wyden (D-OR) and Moran (R-KS)

On July 25, Pew's Economic Mobility Project (EMP) joined United States Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) to formally launch the Economic Mobility Caucus—a forum for discussion about the facts and drivers of economic mobility in America.

Deseret News – Moving on Up: Can the American Dream Still Become a Reality Today?

For some Americans, that dawn never comes. A new study just released by Pew Charitable Trusts' Economic Mobility Project finds that 43 percent of the people raised at the bottom fifth (households making less than $28,900 a year), stay at the bottom. Seventy percent of those raised at the bottom make less than $44,000 a year. A measly four percent struggle their way from the bottom up to the top fifth of earners in America.

Five Facts About Achieving the American Dream

Before we get to our list of facts, I want to tell you about a dark and dingy room in the basement of the Institute for Social Research building at the University of Michigan

Opinion: America's Mobility Scorecard

In America, we believe that anyone can grow up to be anything. One litmus test for how well America works is whether they rise above their parents economically.

Opinion: Romney Can Gain Upper Hand on Economic Policy by Focusing on Class

On economic policy, Barack Obama has left Mitt Romney an opening. The president has responded to a severe, continuing labor market slump with a four-year-old, marginally counterproductive tax increase proposal.

Economic Mobility: Who Gets Left Behind

Most Americans make more than their parents did, but that doesn't mean they're all moving up the economic ladder.

Income Up, Wealth Down

A pair of interesting charts (via Kevin Drum) were released by the Pew Economic Mobility Program. They do some fancy statistical work to try to do an apples-to-apples comparison of today's 45 year olds with the economic welfare of their parents' generation at 45.

Pew Finds Most Americans Have Greater Income Than Their Parents, But Little Movement Up and Down the Economic Ladder

Pursuing the American Dream: Economic Mobility Across Generations shows opportunity is not the same for everyone. While 84 percent of Americans have higher family incomes than their parents did at the same age, those born at the top and bottom of the income ladder are likely to stay there as adults.

Rags to Riches? That's Hollywood Fiction, Study Finds

Just 4 percent of people who grew up in the bottom fifth of the household income ladder made it to the top fifth as adults, according to a new long-term study showing the limits of American mobility.

Two Thirds of Americans Aren't Economically Mobile

Only about one-third of American families will surpass their parents in wealth and income and climb to a new rung on the economic ladder, a new study out today from The Pew Charitable Trusts concludes.

Are You Upwardly Mobile? Probably Not

The majority of Americans have higher incomes than their parents, but it is still not enough to move most of them into a higher bracket—especially those at the bottom.

Pursuing the American Dream

Pew's latest report on economic mobility shows a mixed view. While a majority of Americans exceed their parents’ family income and wealth, the extent of their absolute mobility gains are not always enough to move them to a different rung of the economic ladder.

On The Economic Ladder, Rungs Move Further Apart

While many believe it's easier to move up the economic ladder in America than anywhere else in the world, the United States simply does not do very well on that score.

Maryland's Economic Mobility is Among the Best in U.S.

If you're aiming to be upwardly mobile, living in Maryland might help.

America - The Land of Equal Opportunity for All?

Americans take pride in living in a land of opportunity, where you can "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" and succeed in the face of adversity. But recent research shows that old adage may not be true, depending on where in the country you live.

Climbing the Economic Ladder? Think North and East

Where do you have the best chance of climbing the economic ladder?