ROME - A new study says more young adults in Italy live at home with their parents because of low salaries for entry level jobs.

Researchers with the Italian economic think tank ISAE said the rate of young adults living with their parents has increased from 68.4 percent in 1991 to 74.1 percent in 2004, ANSA said Thursday.

The news service said Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa sparked controversy last fall when he referred to the young adult Italians living at home as 'big babies.'

''Let's get these big babies out of the home,'' he said in reference to a budget measure to set aside funds

to help young adults pay the rent on a place of their own.

"We need to encourage young people to leave home," he said. "If they don't, they just stay with their parents, they don't get married and they don't become independent."

© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.