Six Reasons Americans Fall Out Of The Middle Class: 24/7 Wall St. (UPDATED)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/09/the-6-reasons-americans-fall-out-middle-class_n_955849.html#s355675&title=5_Less_Than

From 24/7 Wall St.: Seems as though the American Dream is just that — a dream. If you were born into a middle class family, there is a high chance that you’ll end up falling down the economic ladder into a lower class, according to a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. And while your parents profession or your race are a good predictor of where you’ll end up if you didn’t start in the middle class, they’re not very helpful if you were born into it. 24/7 Wall St. has reviewed a new report from Pew Charitable Trusts to identify the six traits that can contribute to a person’s likelihood of falling out of that economic group.

Less Than College Graduate

Men: N/A
Women: 16.3 percentage points

For women, having a high school diploma or less is even a greater detriment when compared with those who have graduated from college. They are 16.3 percentage points more likely to fall out of the middle class. (Statistically relevant data are not available for men.) Unfortunately, this problem may be getting worse. According to the College Board, tuition and fees for public universities have surged almost 130% over the last 20 years, while middle class incomes have remained relatively flat. Middle class families who cannot afford school must therefore either take on significant amounts of debt or downgrade their children's education.

Less Than Some College

Men:13.1 percentage points
Women:9.5 percentage points

Men with a high school diploma or less are 13 percentage points more likely to fall out of the middle class than men who have at least some college education. The amount falls to 9.5 percentage point for women. This may be the result of employers increasingly expecting employees to have some amount of post-secondary education. According to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, people with a high school diploma or less are accounting for an increasingly small percentage of the workforce. "In 1970, nearly three-quarters of those workers considered to be middle class had not gone beyond high school in their education; in 2007, that figure had dropped below 40 percent," according to an article published in The New York Times.

**Opinion**

Interesting to note that there isn't any data available for men regarding the, "Less Than College Graduate", reason.