Younger American workers may be burdened with higher student debt and unemployment rates than the country as a whole, but they’re also more optimistic than older generations, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve.

The Fed’s new report, Experiences and Perspectives of Young Workers, aims to shed light on the educational attainment, job market outlook, employment experiences and perspectives of America’s 18- to 30-year olds. On the whole, the survey revealed that 61 percent of that age cohort felt optimistic about their future employment prospects, compared with 45 percent who said the same in 2013.

Education and employment seemed to be key to young adults’ optimism, though.

Those who already had paying jobs and those with higher levels of education were more optimistic than their peers who either did not have a job or had a lower level of education. But young adults with at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree or higher were slightly more likely to believe their standard of living would be lower (4 percent) than those whose parents had a high school education or less (1 percent).

The majority of respondents (62 percent) who had postsecondary education worked while in school in order to finance some or all of their education. Fifty-two percent of those respondents also received some form of financial help from their parents, and 46 percent took on some debt to pay for school.

But the majority of respondents now believe that education is worth the investment, according to the Fed. From 2013, the first year this survey was conducted, to 2015, the percentage of young adults who believe the benefits of a postsecondary education outweigh the costs increased from 43 percent to 54 percent.

And it may be time to retire the trope of the Millennial college grads who feel they deserve a six-figure salary straight out of school. According to the Fed’s survey, the majority of respondents (62 percent) just want steady employment, rather than higher pay (36 percent), though that figure had ticked down slightly from 2013, when 67 percent said they preferred steady employment. And the lion’s share of those who preferred steady employment (80 percent) said they would rather have one job than a stream of steady jobs for the next five years.

The Fed outlined several policy implications in its report, too. Since a postsecondary education is so critical to young adults’ outlook and experiences in life, that education could be better aligned with the labor market. The report’s authors suggested that students should receive better quality information prior to embarking on a postsecondary program. The Fed also suggested that priority be placed on increasing opportunities for those workers who had obtained non-degree education.

The survey was designed by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors staff and administered by GfK, an online consumer research firm. The firm contacted a total of 4,135 potential respondents – including 1,139 who had taken the 2013 survey – via email and received back 2,035 completed surveys for a response rate of 49 percent.

The full report is available here.