Same thing happens in Europe and here in Portugal. There's not just one cause for this, but some young adults tend to blame the "economic crisis" to excuse their life style and lack of common sense towards their helping parents. Of course, if this happens is because the parents themselves let it.
In other cases parents are overprotective/overdenfensive about their son's faillures "oh, this damn crisis, (s)he just can't get a job!". I mean, I'm sure there's tons of people that want to work and can't find a job, but others are just leeching their parents/grandparents/government. I see it wih my own eyes every day, men and women spend their entire days in the cafés/bars drinking and smoking and screaming at the TV screen every time a politian is talking about the crisis and how bad our wages are. The way I see it, if you're not contributing for this society your word doesn't worth a thing. Besides you're not entitled to talk about lack of job opportunities if every time you get called to the job center (don't know the name in English, sorry) you say "eh, I really wouldn't like to do that type of job" or "what, I'm gonna get paid LESS than the social aid gov is giving me now?".
Some of these young adults need a slap in their face to wake up from the numbness they're in. Sadly, for some that only will happen when their parents die, or when the social aid runs out and then when they start to look up for a job they will hear the "sorry, you're too old for the job and you have no experience - where have you been doing the last 20 years?" response.
Of course, crisis has its share in this. People are getting fired/retired every day and no one is hired to those vacant positions. But we have people with master degrees working in call centers, but at least they are working and not only contributing for our society but also for their future retirement. Give a medal to those poor batards that spent 3/4 of their lives studying so they can handle morons over a telephone 8hrs a day, instead of writing checks with "social aid" stamp to those who will spend it in booze, cigarrettes and drugs.
Me and my brother didn't get an easy life and we had to fight for everything we wanted. We have a fucking bastard for a father figure that never gave us even a piece of bread and our mum made everything she could. We never had lack of anything material (clothes, a decent roof over our heads, school supplies) or food but it was because of my mother's family business, since her job wasn't enough to feed four mouths (everything my father got he would waste in hookers). When my brother was 16 he went to study at night to get a day job and start supporting himself. Two years later he moved out. I did the same more or so and the same age with the difference when I left home I knew I would have to help my mum doing the same so she could leave her fucking husband. For two years I worked in bars, cafés, stationery stores, supermarkets, walking dogs, taking care of my mum's friends' kids/grandsons. I did everything I had to do to survive with dignity and I'm not ashamed of any of that. During those years I didn't waste a cent in booze (I had it for free bar jobs lol), nor drugs (never in my life I got high from any kind of drug, actually), or entertainment (internet, cinema, books, music), all I got was put towards my future and help for my mum. At 18 I went to the army, because they would give me help for an apartment if I needed to move more than a certain quantity of quilometers from my residence, plus I would get free drivers license and all the extra for overseas missions if that ever happened (which it did and because of that I helped my mum recover our family farm and helped her move in).
Even after I left the army I went to work as pollice in the national guard, because here it's the most easy thing to do (go to the army) when you wan to go to the guard, which was my ultimate goal. And after that I've had more jobs. Luckily I don't need to, I've saved enough during those years to live a comfortable life, my husband is well paid (he managed to continue in the national guard and he's getting all the ranks I always wanted, the fucker <3) but I still work when I want to. I'm curretly working in a café/bar, because I like it, and it helps me feel useful for me, my family and for the society.
I'm not afraid for my kids' future, not financially at least. They are being teached that they need to work for what they want, because nothing in this life comes for free. I won't push them to be doctors, great lawyers or CEO's as long as they can provide their adult selfs and be happy with whatever job they get. If they want to go to university, good!, they will do with their parents didn't for many reasons, but they will need to work for it, during school and in the first years of adulthood, despite the fact they will have (hopefully) their parents to support them till a certain extent.
So... For me and my brother it was a "sink or swim" situation and we had to swim damn hard because, literally, our lives depended on it. And is that what lacks for most of young adults nowadays - a reason for them to throw themselves in the ocean and swim like crazy or they'll perish.
Sorry for any errors/mispelling. I revised this statement at least 10 times and I think I got rid of every single one, but my English sucks and I'm not ashamed of that either.