Rising young worker despair in the United States

Between the early 1990s and 2015 the relationship between mental despair and age was hump-shaped in the United States: it rose in middle-age, then declined later in life. That relationship has now changed: mental despair declines with age due to a rise in despair among the young. However, we show for the first time that the relationship between age and mental despair differs by labor market status. The hump-shape in age still exists among non-workers. The change in the age-despair profile over time is due to increasing despair among young workers, a trend that began in 2010. Prior to that, the young were less likely to be in despair if in work, but today they are as likely to be in despair as students and the unemployed. We find broad-based evidence for this finding in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) of 1993-2025, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 2008-2023, and in surveys by Pew, the Conference Board and Johns Hopkins University.