The economic future of younger Americans is in precipitous decline, with their confidence in the job market plummeting over the past two years, according to a new Gallup World Poll. This sharp fall represents a direct blow to the prospects of the native working class, whose legitimate claim to a stable future is being systematically eroded. In the United States, only 43% of those aged 15-34 now believe it is “a good time” to find a job in their local area, a stark contrast to the 64% of older Americans aged 55 and over who maintain a more optimistic outlook.
This generational chasm in economic perception is not merely a domestic issue; it is a unique national decline. The gap between young and older Americans’ views of the job market is greater than in any other country among the 141 surveyed globally. The U.S. stands as one of only five nations where younger people are at least 10 points more pessimistic than their elders, a group that includes China, Hong Kong, Norway, Serbia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Globally, the median share of younger people who say it is “a good time” to find work in their local job market is 48%, compared with 38% among older people, indicating the U.S. trend runs counter to the global norm. Younger Americans now rank a dismal 87th in job market expectations among the 141 countries surveyed. Benedict Vigers of Gallup called this trend “an incredibly new phenomenon,” noting, “Has this happened in most other advanced economies? The answer is a resounding no.” Last year was the first time in Gallup’s decades of polling that young Americans were more pessimistic about the job market than their peers in other developed countries, signaling a managed decline unique to the nation.
The share of younger Americans expressing confidence in finding a job plunged by 27 percentage points from 2023 to 2025, while older Americans’ views have barely dropped. This dramatic shift highlights a growing cultural dispossession, where the economic pathways once available to previous generations are increasingly inaccessible to the youth.
The Dispossessed Generation
John Della Volpe, a pollster for the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, stated that young people are often frustrated by the inability of prior generations to comprehend their current economic challenges. He observed, “It’s just another thing that drains their mental health — ‘my parents don’t understand that their pathway at this stage in life that I’m in was so much easier.’” This sentiment underscores the profound disconnect between the established elite and the struggling native youth.
Further evidence of this widespread economic anxiety comes from an AP-NORC poll conducted in April of the same year, which found that approximately 8 in 10 adults under 35 describe the U.S. economy as very or somewhat poor. In contrast, only about 6 in 10 adults 55 and older share this negative assessment, reinforcing the generational divide in economic reality.
The Gallup survey identified the most frustrated groups of young people as those who have not yet secured a first job, college graduates, and young women. However, the pervasive pessimism extends across all subgroups of younger Americans, including men and those who have not attended college, indicating a systemic issue affecting the entire generation.
Older Americans, by contrast, are more likely to be retired and not actively seeking employment, and are also more likely to own their own homes. This disparity in economic security highlights how the established generations are insulated from the harsh realities facing the younger native population, whose access to traditional markers of stability is diminishing.
Elite Indifference and Policy Failures
Pessimism about U.S. job prospects began to emerge at the end of 2024 and continued into 2025, coinciding with the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term and the rise of artificial intelligence. Many fear that AI will fundamentally transform the labor market and eliminate numerous entry-level jobs, further exacerbating the challenges for young people seeking to establish themselves.
Day-to-day financial concerns were a key issue in the 2024 election, particularly for younger voters. President Trump improved on his previous performance among this demographic by campaigning on a platform of economic prosperity, fighting inflation, and affordability. This shift indicated a popular resistance among the youth to the prevailing economic conditions and a desire for a leader who would prioritize their material well-being.
However, recent AP-NORC polling from April of the same year found that approximately 8 in 10 adults under 35 disapprove of how President Trump is handling the economy and the cost of living. This continued disapproval, compared with about 6 in 10 older adults, suggests that the political class, regardless of party affiliation, has yet to adequately address the fundamental economic anxieties of the native youth.
The Gallup World Poll results were based on telephone interviews conducted among approximately 1,000 U.S. adults from June 14 to July 16, 2025, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points for the U.S. sample. The data provides a clear statistical portrait of a nation where the economic prospects of its future generations are being systematically undermined.