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Since Andrew Benton graduated from college less than four years ago, he has dropped out of a Princeton Ph.D. program in economics, moved to rural Georgia to start a Web-software company that he s trying to sell, and now works freelance for a cloud-computing company in Silicon Valley. He buys his own health insurance and contributes to his retirement accounts; neither his policy nor his accounts receive corporate contributions. Does his job instability and lack of benefits worry him? Nope. The 26-year-old does not expect to hold a traditional 9-to-5 job unless he starts his own business again, and he is not overly pessimistic about the recession s long-term effect on his career. I don t pay that much attention to what is going on in the economy, he says. I just found stuff I was interested in. Whatever you make of this attitude smart, entitled, tech savvy , risky, or bold Benton is arguably the prototype of the new and perhaps ideal worker in the post-recession economy. Still, this savvy demographic group isn t immune from the career setbacks of the recession. Workers born after 1980, who are having a harder time gaining a foothold in the job market, may face lower earnings over the next several years of their careers. Those who opt for traditional corporate careers have had to readjust their expectations. For some young, well-educated workers such as 24-year-old Adrian Muniz, the recession has been startling. Muniz graduated from Brown University in 2007 and moved to New York City, expecting to easily find work at a magazine. Instead, he ended up working at high-end retail stores for the past three years and doing media internships on the side to build up his r sum . | 
