<p>"Once a rite of passage to adulthood, summer jobs for teens are disappearing.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>And teen employment may never return to pre-recession levels, suggests a projection by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p>
<p>The drop in teen employment, steeper than for other age groups, is partly a cultural shift. More youths are spending summer months in school, at music or learning camps or in other activities geared for college. 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.</p>
<p>Older workers, immigrants and debt-laden college graduates are taking away lower-skill work as they struggle to find their own jobs in the weak economy. 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." ...</p>
<p>Parents, do you see this 70% teen unemployment factor at work in your area?</p>
<p>Count my DS is this group He’s been looking for a job since April. One employer told him they don’t hire high school kids because they “Flake” once school starts. How’s a kid supposed to get any kind of paid work experience? He has a great resume by the way.</p>
<p>Lol too bad for all those teens.
I’m doing a paid engineering internship starting next week, so I am one of those 3/10.
$3k for this summer baby!</p>
<p>My kids’ friends have had good luck. Both mine are working out of state…one as camp counselor and one as conference support at church conference center.</p>
<p>The options for us high schoolers in my town are very few. Most college kids get first priority, then adults (very high level of unemployment), then high school students. We have a few plazas and shopping malls, but in most of those stores you have to be 18+ to work. I’ve been filling out applications since I turned 16, have called many places numerous times, and have only been offered an interview once. I think I’ve applied to almost every business in town and in the surrounding towns, no such luck. Very few kids in my school have jobs. A lot of moms stay home with their kids over the summer. The few babysitting jobs available were given to college kids coming home for the summer. It’s been very difficult to get a job.</p>
<p>We have a new mall opening tomorrow and they recently hired 800 people, I’d say the vast majority high-school kids to keep compensation down. Our unemployment rate is under 5% I think so things aren’t terrible here. There are help-wanted signs in many of the fast-food places.</p>
<p>Sometimes you just gotta know the right people. I’m the only teenager in my corporation but I had connections, I didn’t just walk in and apply. Jobs where you walk in and apply usually accept the adults and the college kids first.</p>
<p>Most retail stores won’t take the application if under age 18. This includes 2 local McDonalds and a new PetSmart. McDonald’s had been nearly all high school kids in the past.</p>
<p>A local amusement park has hired High School teens, but only those with specific expertise - Lifeguard, Dancer.</p>
<p>Local ice cream and water ice hired teens with “connections” to the owners.</p>
<p>My son has given up and is looking for volunteer opportunities just to show he did something with his summer.</p>
<p>My daughter started cashiering in a supermarket when she was 16, and is very lucky that they will put her on the schedule whenever she tells them she is available-Thanksgiving, winter break, spring break and all summer long.</p>
He’s been looking for a job since April. One employer told him they don’t hire high school kids because they “Flake” once school starts. How’s a kid supposed to get any kind of paid work experience? He has a great resume by the way.</p>