[jyl]

Back to the OP, I think the occupations that pay enough for the young person to be on his or her own, buying a house, starting a family, now tend to require longer education.

In the 1940s and 1950s a guy could go to work as a butcher or similar blue collar job and make enough to buy a modest house and raise a family. Maybe not in a big city, but in a small town. That's what my father in law did. WW2 Navy vet, Okinawa vet, came home, became a butcher, married his high school sweetie, bought a house (maybe some GI benefits?), started a very small commercial cleaning company, raised six kids by cleaning stores and restaurants. The kids helped, my wife grew up cleaning toilets.

Today that butcher maybe makes enough to rent an apartment, at least in a city and that's where more of the population lives today, cities. And if you don't have a "trade", but are just working entry level jobs, just making enough to rent more than a room can be tough.

We read a lot about why kids should become tradesmen and I agree that's the right path for many, but the trades require more training and experience now too.

Figure the math. $15/hour (which is well more than minimum wage most places) for 50 hours/wk (which you won't get many places, maybe need to stitch together two jobs) and 50 weeks/yr is $37,500. 40% of that gets you about $1,250/mo for rent, utilities. In Portland that's a low end one bedroom apartment. So it's doable but are you really in a position to start cranking out kids? Some do but you can see why many would wait.

There is also less interest, for other reasons, in getting married early and having kids right away. Average age at first child is getting older, even among those with plenty of money. That's normal, all countries go through that as they become more economically developed, and childbirth rate also declines.

Just because the kid is going to be a student for a long time doesn't mean they don't know how to work. My daughter started working about 14 y/o in the high school cafeteria, the next year she stayed working 6 days/wk 12 hours/day in the kitchen washing dishes at a summer camp. She's worked there every summer since, became a cook then supervisor, head of kitchen, head of meal service, now she manages the whole food operation with 20 staff and a substantial budget, still cranking 12 hour days. Then she goes back to college and pulls all nighters in the studio and writing (art + journalism degrees, will also get her BFA next year after 5 years of school). I know, art degree, but it is what you make of it. I know a young lady who took her art MFA to San Francisco and made $100K/yr (admittedly that's not much, there), now is in New York running some sort of creative company. My son is taking a gap year, he's getting plenty of chill time but also got his EMT certificate, is dancing professionally, and starts college next year to study architecture which is a 5 year program. He hopes to work as an EMT during school to help pay for it. They'll both be 30 by the time they become the homeowning-parent types - if they ever do - but they'll also probably live 10-20 years longer than people did in the 1940s and 50s and have the chance to be working well into their seventies, if they need/want to.

TL-DR its just tough for young folks today, not as in physical labor tough, but in figuring out how to put together enough earnings to thrive without going to college and maybe beyond.