Teens May Need to Look Hard for Summer Jobs

To all the parents who’ve been stopping by the blawg lately to read about family responsibilities discrimination: we’ve got some bad news for your teenage children. The Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University has predicted historic low teen employment rates for this summer, despite job growth for older adults.

The Problem

According to the Center’s study, “The overall teen employment rate (36.6%) in the past three years (2004-2006) was the lowest in the past 60 years.”

Traditional teen jobs like newspaper delivery are now done by professional services. Food service and retail jobs are largely going to immigrants, rather than teens, according to Andrew Sum, a labor market expert at Northeastern University. “And if you walk into a mall or grocery store, you’ll see large numbers of older people working at jobs teens used to have,” he said in a Knowledge@Wharton report.

The brunt of this unemployment falls on racial minorities. According to the study, White teens were employed at nearly twice the rate of Asian and Black teenagers (51%, compared to 27%).

But low employment levels are bad news for all teens. The study, which advocates a federally-funded teen jobs creation program, said:

The loss in teen job opportunities has become extraordinarily high, depriving teens of a chance to obtain work experience, develop the soft employability skills desired by employers, and receive earnings to support their own personal consumption and contribute to their family’s economic well-being, especially among low income youth.

A teen’s first job can help him build confidence, responsibility, and money management skills. The extra pocket cash is practically a bonus! George worked at McDonald’s as a teen, and he owes a lot of his work ethic to the experience. I think his manager’s immortal words still haunt his nightmares: “If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.”

Some Hopeful News

The Department of Labor regulates child labor conditions, and it has outlawed “hazardous work” for anyone under 18. In April, the agency declared its intent to strengthen these regulations by forbidding such practices as riding on forklifts, selling door-to-door, or operating certain types of industrial machinery. At the same time, it reportedly “signaled its willingness to open additional opportunities for younger teens in such jobs as banking and information technology.”

How to Find a Job

To get a job (and all the attendant perks), teens should start looking hard even before they get out of school for the summer. But it’s not too late. A smattering of tips from Shawn Boyer, CEO of SnagAJob.com, should prove helpful. Boyer recommends casting a wide net in your job search. Let family and friends know you’re on the hunt, and apply to many different businesses.

Boyer also recommends thinking outside the mall. For example, hotels and airlines need help caring for the influx of summer travelers. Amusement parks also need lifeguards and concession salespeople. Banks may hire teenage tellers, sometimes as young as 16. Companies like Mass Connections Inc. hire teens as product demonstrators. SnagAJob.com lists over 100,000 of these hourly jobs, searchable by zip code.

If you don’t get hired within the first week of your job search, don’t get discouraged. A SnagAJob.com spokesperson said:

Those who have already found a job might leave those positions in June, so there will be openings. In general, there is frequently churn in the hourly job industry and positions do become available.

Artistically or mechanically-inclined teens might consider doing a little entrepreneurship, making candles or soap or repairing bicycles. Growing herbs is also a clever possibility– but stick to legal herbs!

Other Tips

A job search site like SnagAJob.com can widen your opportunities by connecting you with companies you don’t know about. That also introduces some risk. SnagAJob tries to weed out fraudulent companies by making sure employers have legitimate addresses and phone numbers. A SnagAJob.com spokesperson also recommended that applicants make sure they feel comfortable with the job for which they are applying:

Job descriptions have varying levels of information, and if you feel there’s not enough information for you, don’t apply.
Don’t apply to a job if you are asked to pay money to receive a job.
Don’t go to an unidentifiable address for a job or to any place that makes you feel uncomfortable.