Income for young college grads down almost 10 percent since 2000

Last week, we wrote about young people who have been forced by the sour economy to put major life steps on hold. Now, via the Wall Street Journal, here's a statistic that reinforces that bleak picture.

In 2000, according to Census Bureau data, the median annual earnings of a college grad (without a graduate degree) aged 25-34 was $45,200. Last year, adjusting for inflation, it was $40,875--a whopping 9.6 percent decline.

Nor is this income gap going away any time soon, by the looks of things. Studies suggest that workers who graduated college during a recession are likely to be worse off than those who graduated during better times, even when measured decades later.