US Generational Gap in Job Market Optimism Now Largest in Gallup World Poll of 141 Countries

Young Americans’ confidence in the local job market has fallen sharply while older Americans’ views have held relatively steady, creating the widest generational gap of any country in a Gallup World Poll covering 141 nations. In the United States, 43% of those aged 15-34 believe it is a good time to find a job in the area where they live.

That compares with 64% of Americans aged 55 and over who say the same.

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 median share of younger people who say it is a good time to find work in their local job market is 48%. The median share of older people who say the same is 38%.

The United States is one of only five countries where younger people are at least 10 points more pessimistic about the availability of work than older ones. The five countries are the United States, China, Hong Kong, Norway, Serbia and the United Arab Emirates. Younger Americans ranked 87th in job market expectations among the 141 countries surveyed.

The share of younger Americans saying it was a good time to find a job plunged by 27 percentage points from 2023 to 2025. U.S. age group registered a drop in confidence in the job market after 2023, but those aged 34 and younger saw the largest decline in recent years.

Younger Americans’ job market views now register close to the level they did in 2010. 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. “It’s an incredibly new phenomenon,” Benedict Vigers of Gallup said.

“Has this happened in most other advanced economies? S. job prospects found pessimism emerging at the end of 2024 and continuing into 2025. The most frustrated groups of young people are those who haven’t secured a first job yet, college graduates and young women.

The heightened pessimism spreads across all subgroups of younger Americans, including men and those who haven’t attended college. “Whoever they are, they are more pessimistic than they were three years ago,” Vigers said. U.S.

Economy as very or somewhat poor, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in April. U.S. About 8 in 10 adults under 35 disapprove of how President Trump is handling the economy and the cost of living.

U.S. youth for the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, said young people are frequently frustrated at how prior generations don’t understand their current economic challenges.

““It’s just another thing that drains their mental health”

“— John Della Volpe The Gallup World Poll results are based on telephone interviews conducted among approximately 1,000 U.S. adults from June 14 to July 16, 2025. The margin of error is ±4.4 percentage points for the U.S. sample. The poll was released on Monday. Fortune.com reported these findings.”