Young Adults

With a degree in economics, Yevgeniy Levich, 23, may understand better than most why so many people his age are out of work. He blames the lack of jobs on a myriad of reasons: the lack of regulation in banking that led to this economic crisis; a failed theory that lowering taxes leads to investment; a proposal for infrastructure jobs that doesn't do much for someone who doesn't work with his hands - that's all the macro stuff. Microeconomics is this: Levich, a Central High School graduate with degrees in economics and journalism from New York University, is still living with his parents in Northeast Philadelphia and hoping that he'll land a job as a nightclub office assistant.

WASHINGTON - At least one part of President Obama's health-care overhaul has proven popular. With the economy sputtering, the number of young adults covered by health insurance grew by about a million as families flocked to take advantage of a new benefit in the law. Two surveys released Wednesday - one by the government, another by Gallup - found significantly fewer young adults going without coverage even as the overall number of uninsured remained...

"Theology on Tap" is the title of a series for young adults to be held from 7 to 9 p.m. July 16, 23 and 30 at SS. Simon and Jude Church, West Chester Pike and Route 352, West Chester. The programs will include discussions on decision making, problems in society today, and methods of healing and understanding. For more information, call the Office of Young Adult Ministry at 610-649-9476. MARRIAGE SEMINAR Marketplace Community Church, 500 Chesterbrook Blvd., Wayne, will host "Marriage Menders" from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 12. It will be led by Tom Whiteman of Life Counseling and New Life Clinics.

If adulthood in the '90s came with Cliff Notes, we'd read that: "Melrose Place" is a really good show. An HIV test is a rite of passage. The Big Gulp was the most profound invention of our generation. Or so we're informed in "Reality Bites," Hollywood's latest and most on- target effort at addressing the anxieties and concerns of the post-Baby Boomer generation. It's as tempting as a Slurpee with a side of Pop Rocks to assume "Reality Bites" is just capitalizing on the demographic tagged "Generation X" and the twentysomethings.

This story is part of a series on the changing face of Philadelphia as reflected in the new 2010 census figures. Seeking an "urban lifestyle," Heather McKay moved into Center City four years ago even though she works in Montgomery County. "There's so much to do" in the city, she said, as she walked her black rat terrier, Clark, around Rittenhouse Square yesterday. She lives near the park and particularly likes the city's nightlife - hanging out at Time restaurant and bar and the Continental Midtown, especially its rooftop.

Communications major Daniel Quick was too busy at Temple University yesterday to watch President Obama sign sweeping health-care legislation into law. But he had been following the news about one key provision - the possibility of obtaining health insurance through his parents' health plans after he graduates next year. "It's encouraging to me," said Quick, a junior. "That was the major thing I was worried about, even more than rent and food, after I graduated from college.

A new jobs program will offer 1,000 disadvantaged young adults from Philadelphia up to a year of intensive physical work and daily educational instruction, city job-training officials announced yesterday. Modeled after similar programs in San Francisco and New York, the new Philadelphia Youth Service Corps will enroll unemployed individuals - many of them high school dropouts - between the ages of 18 and 22. Participants will be paid minimum wage and work in 10-member teams, doing such things as painting community centers, renovating houses, clearing vacant lots, and working as aides in homeless shelters and nursing homes, according to David W. Lacey, president of the Private Industry Council of Philadelphia.

Young adults were a key demographic that helped to elect President Obama in 2008. Polling data show that 66 percent of people under 30 voted for Obama, the highest share of the youth vote obtained by any candidate since exit polls began reporting results by age. One of the top provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which was passed last year, was to make health insurance more affordable to the millions of Americans who cannot afford it. For...

THERE ARE more than 27 million American men and women ages 18-24 with a Facebook account. That's 27 million voices that share their insights and opinions on the Web. If our youth are willing to display their opinion on a social-networking site, imagine the impact if they brought their voice to the voting booth. Unfortunately, we cannot simply "like" a candidate. We have to cast a vote. Only 22 percent - or 10.8 million - American voters ages 18 to 24 went to the polls during the 2006 congressional election.

The beer commercial "you can have it all" sounds like a kind of anthem for America's young, prosperous, upwardly mobile professionals who are supposed to typify their generation. Unfortunately, the myth hides an ugly fact. Most of America's young adults are not upwardly mobile. For as long as anyone can remember, the heart of the American experience has been upward mobility. What we now see is something alien and unacceptable: a general downward mobility, a slippage in living standards from parents to children.

More New Jersey residents lived in poverty in 2010 than ever before, according to a report released Sunday. A record 885,0000 people in the state, nearly 300,000 of them children, lived below the poverty line, say authors of an analysis by the Legal Services of New Jersey Poverty Research Institute in Edison, which is based on the most recent numbers available. Overall, the poverty rate increased from 8.7 percent in 2008 to 9.4 percent in 2009, and finally to 10.3 percent in 2010.

Fewer American teenagers and young adults are lighting up as cigarette taxes that have broken the $3-a-pack threshold in some states make smoking too costly, according to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Daily smoking, the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States, fell to 15.8 percent in 2010 among young adults 18 to 25, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said in a report. That share was down from 20.4 percent in 2004.

Half of Americans think Facebook is a passing fad, according to the results of a new Associated Press-CNBC poll. And, in the run-up to the social network's initial public offering of stock, half of Americans also say the social network's expected asking price is too high. The company Mark Zuckerberg created as a Harvard student eight years ago is preparing for what looks to be the biggest Internet IPO ever. Expected later this week, Facebook's Wall Street debut could value the company at $100 billion, making it worth more than Disney, Ford and Kraft Foods.

HE'S NEARLY 27 years old, unemployed, living at home in the Philadelphia exurbs with his dad, and spending a good chunk of his day on the computer. But Chris Cocchi isn't playing video games. Instead, the West Chester 20-something - who's worked most recently as a line cook - spends most of his time on Craigslist, hoping to find the career listing that will break the cycle of dead-end jobs and unemployment - and pay well enough for him to move out and maybe go back to school.

THREE DAYS of arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act - a/k/a "Obamacare" - began Monday with observers wondering aloud if the two main attorneys in the case possess the mental and physical stamina to get through it. Of course, if the attorneys should crack under the strain, for sure they will have adequate health care since they no doubt can afford decent insurance. Not so for millions of Americans if opponents of the law succeed in blocking its full implementation - in particular, the 30 million Americans who don't have insurance who would get it under the new law. Actually, though, pretty much every American will be affected by the court decision, if only because the nation's dysfunctional health-care system is a persistent drag on the economy.

After two years, the Affordable Care Act has yet to dramatically alter the health-care landscape in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but the controversial law, facing a U.S. Supreme Court challenge this week, has expanded insurance coverage in small ways and added momentum to changes already under way in the health-care system. "It has made a difference," said David Simon, executive vice president at Jefferson Health System. "It's been a catalyst for people to start thinking about things, looking at new ways of doing business, accelerating the pace of change in terms of increasing quality and efficiency.

The world's most popular website started in a college dorm room, and for some users it stops there, too. Though Facebook currently claims a tenth of the world's population in monthly users, many in its original demographic - young adults - have attempted, sometimes successfully, to go against the grain. Call it Facebook fatigue, social network sickness, sensory overload: It's not unusual for college-age users to call it quits. At least for a little while. Colleen Andrews, 24, a graphic designer from Far Hills, N.J., was spurred by a breakup: "I didn't want to be tempted to look at his profile," she said.

Along this strip of Germantown Avenue where business is cheap and quick, prayer is its own commodity. Places of worship have staked their claim amid the take-out food stores, discount shops, abandoned buildings, and blue lights from a police surveillance camera on the corner, near Silver Street. Inside the storefront Philly Open Air Church this mild Wednesday night, the youth-study Bible lesson is on the power of forgiveness, out of the book of Matthew. The circle of nine - mostly teenage boys and young men - sit on worn couches in a conversation that turns to violence.

NEW JERSEY Holiday for recruits The Coast Guard and the American Red Cross will place about 240 Coast Guard recruits with 79 South Jersey host families for holiday dining on Sunday as part of Operation Fireside. At any given time, the Cape May training center may have more than 600 Coast Guard recruits who come from all 50 states and U.S. territories. Since 1981, Operation Fireside has allowed recruits to celebrate the holiday with a host family while they're separated from their loved ones during training.

Movies The Adventures of Tintin Steven Spielberg directs this animated family feature about the adventures of a brave young reporter and his trusty dog. Opens Wednesday The Artist See Steven Rea's preview on H2 . The Darkest Hour Five young adults in Moscow struggle for their lives when aliens attack Earth. Opens Christmas Day The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Daniel Craig stars as a journalist trying to unlock the secrets behind a powerful family.