Teen employment may never return to prerecession levels, suggests a projection by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Summer jobs for teens are disappearing.Fewer than three in 10 American teenagers now hold jobs such as running cash registers, mowing lawns or busing restaurant tables from June to August. The decline has been particularly sharp since 2000, with employment for 16- to 19-year-olds falling to the lowest level since World War II.
And teen employment may never return to prerecession levels, suggests a projection by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The drop in teen employment, steeper than for other age groups, is partly a cultural shift. More youths are spending summer months in school or at music or learning camps. But the decline is especially troubling for teens for whom college may be out of reach, leaving them increasingly idle and with few options to earn wages and job experience.
Upper-income white teens are three times as likely to have summer jobs as poor black teens, sometimes capitalizing on their parents’ social networks for help.
Overall, more than 44 percent of teens who want summer jobs don’t get them or work fewer hours than they prefer.
“It’s really frustrating,” said Colleen Knaggs, describing her fruitless efforts to find work for the past two years. The 18-year-old graduated from high school last week in Flagstaff, Ariz., the state that ranks highest in the share of U.S. teens who are unable to get the summer work they desire, at 58 percent.Wanting to save for college, Knaggs says, she submitted a dozen applications for summer cashier positions. She was turned down. Instead of working this summer, she’ll be baby-sitting her 10-year-old brother, which has been the extent of her work so far, aside from volunteering at concession stands.