After graduating, going back home

NEW YORK -- When Melissa Jenkins received her college diploma last year, she was ready to get on with life -- and move in with her parents.

The 23-year-old from North Reading, Mass., was saddled with student loans from her years at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire and felt she had no solid career prospects.

"It didn't make sense for me to move out on my own," she says.

"I didn't have the appropriate funds. I was searching for a career path."

When the class of 2008 graduates this spring, nearly half are expected to move back home, according to Susan Shaffer, co-author of "Mom, Can I Move Back in with You?: A Survival Guide for Parents of Twentysomethings." They're called Boomerangers, and their number has remained pretty consistent since the dot-com bust, she says, a result of financial and social pressures unknown to previous generations.

The economy isn't entirely to blame: This year's job outlook is better than last's, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, with companies planning to hire 8 percent more recent graduates this year.

Still, wages for new grads haven't kept pace with inflation -- and rising student loan and credit card debt and a troubled housing market make a return to the nest more likely, experts say. Today's 20-somethings also have better relationships with their parents -- they don't mind trading in their independence, and their parents are OK with having them come home.

"It's become the norm for recent grads to move back home," says Alexandra Robbins, author of "Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis."

According to 2006 Census figures, 46.7 percent of women and 53.7 percent of men ages 18 to 24 still live at home, although those numbers include college students living in dorms. For ages 25 to 34, 14.3 percent of men lived with their parents in 2006, compared with 10.9 percent in 1960.

Robbins says 20-somethings can't afford to be independent these days. "Even before this latest downturn, this generation was not earning the same wages that their parents earned, taking inflation into consideration," she says.