Why was it so difficult for my son to find a job this summer?

Thanks so much for your reply. I don’t know anyone who owns their own business or I would’ve asked them.

I totally get that teens are not the ideal employee for the reasons you gave. My son only asked for 3 mornings off this summer because he has to have a physical for school, go to the dentist and the eye doctor. He is available to work every single day except for those 3 mornings. He hopes to work every single day this summer.

He hopes to stick with this job until he goes to college next fall so I’m keeping my fingers crossed it works out. He likes the managers and the people who works with. He is working as a busser so the training was minimal. He likes getting tips so that is very motivating to him.

I’m glad this company gave him a chance and I will remind him that they were the only one to do so.

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You might want to tell the potential employer those things up front. My kids work, but they ask for time off and it is a pain for the employer. And if they need every weekend off, I think it’s a no go for most jobs.

A kid who can work uninterrupted all Summer is a great find for an employer. And if they can work even a couple of weeks into September, that can be a plus also.

He listed his availability of all of the applications that asked that question. He said he was available to work any day, any time except for those 3 mornings. It didn’t seem to help as only two businesses called him in for an interview.

He is looking forward to working weekends as much as they will schedule him for during the school year. Another busser told him how much he makes in tips on Friday and Saturday so he’s very excited by that!

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[sarcasm] Well it’s obvious. According to all of the employers whining online, “Nobody Wants To Work Anymore”. [/sarcasm]

Seriously, because of the “Great Resignation”, employers are now being forced to pay wages that are more commiserate with the labor that they are receiving. So many are actually not hiring, but still advertising, because they are trying to wait out the potential employees. The pretend to be actively hiring, but do not, and hope that their potential employees will eventually become desperate enough to return to work for starvation wages again.

That is part of it. The other part s that many HR departments have not yet received the memo that it’s a seller’s market, and believe that there are 30 applicants to each person they need to hire, so they believe that they can treat applicants like garbage, and the ones that remain will be the really desperate ones, and these will be enough.

Before that pandemic, that may have been true, but things are different now. The desperation for unskilled labor is so high, that some companies are actually willing to pay close to the fair wage for that job.

Yes, for highly skilled jobs at companies which actually have good salaries and decent benefits are much more difficult to get. However, you just have to pass by most fast-food places to see how desperate they seem to hire. I am sure that there are 10 fast-food places within a short car ride from you that are supposedly hiring.

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A McDonald’s about 15 min from us was so desperate to hire people that they were handing out job applications with drive-thru orders.

BUT…
As it turns out, they only wanted people for mornings Mon-Fri and wouldn’t hire high school students who weren’t going to be able to work week day mornings once the school year began again.

Next summer, D24 is going to start applying in April. She’ll give Starbucks a try, too.

Yes, my kids love the money too. Does he have any friends who are working and can introduce him? I’m sure if he keeps it up he’ll find something. I do wish that employers would hire teens again. It’s such a good thing for kids to work, IMO.

I hope it works for him. I suspect many of the other places didn’t believe him when he said he needed time off. Your son is a welcome exception to today’s norm. I have one employee that has gone to the beach 3 different weeks since the middle of May. I’m glad he found a job. I hate that many of us have become so wary of hiring young people.

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He did find a job and started last week. Finally! I just posted because the difficulty he had trying to find a job didn’t match the sheer number of jobs vacancies out there and I was wondering what was going on. Most of his friends haven’t found work either except for his friend who is a lifeguard. She tried to talk him into taking the certification test but he hasn’t been in a pool in years and I’m not sure he could pass the test.

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I wish we had money to go away on vacation!

Starbucks used to not hire until you were 18. Don’t know if that’s still the case or if it varies by location.

The hot job around here (and as I understand it nationwide) is for lifeguards. The governor pushed through special legislation to make it legal for 15 + to work more hours (more than 40 a week) and get overtime pay. Overtime pay is over $25/hr. they expect there to be plenty of hours at the indoor pools this winter too for anyone who wants a job (and there are private polls too). They were even paying for the training needed, and the probationary period.

Starbucks in MA, they hire at 16. My friends daughter has been there since her birthday @16.

In MA, they are really looking for lifeguards too. They pay really well. Kids don’t want to work down the beach ( riptides, other issues) but they like pools. Some are paying up to $50.00. They esp. like kids who were on the swim team (used to getting up). I never wanted my kids to lifeguard. They aren’t that big and the responsibilities are huge. But the older boys who do it have made lots of $$ and have a ball. And for a kid who swims ( swim team etc), the test isn’t difficult.

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Starbucks definitely hires younger than 18. My '22 almost worked there at 17, but then got the other job. My '19 has had many co-workers (“partners” in Starbucks lingo) who were in high school.

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I didn’t read this whole thread but my son worked as a caddie at a golf course. Although it was long days and caddies are not treated very well, he ended up winning a caddie scholarship of $5k.

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My older kid’s first summer job was bussing tables. He only worked in the summers and on school vacations. He was reliable and would do anything the restaurant needed him to do. So while he was hired to bus tables, he also washed dishes, weeded the flower gardens outside, and even made salads his first year. He worked his way up to an assistant in the kitchen and then to waiting tables. But the key was…he would do anything.

We all were very grateful this place gave our kid a chance.

I will say…around here if you want to absolutely know you can work…get lifeguard certification. HUGE shortage, and some of our public beaches in lakes are actually closed. Pay is good, and hours flexible…and there are winter jobs indoors at the Y, for example.

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Glad he found a job. In case there is a need in the future, I would suggest looking at country/golf clubs (if you have them in your area). My daughter started working as a hostess at the age of 16 and continues to come home from college and work (she has worked her way up to supervisor). There is a large variety of jobs at most cc’s and 16-17 y.o. can work as host/hostesses, front desk, golf cart attendants, pool check in, etc. 18 y.o. can work as servers.

This summer she was recruited by a former boss to work as a pool supervisor at competing country club. She went from $12/hr to $17 and she shares in the service charge (former club did not pass the service charges on to the employees). On 4th of July she made $325 in service charges alone.

It definitely helps to have availability over the summer. No one wants to hire someone who then leaves to vacation.

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Yes, that probably was the case. I have heard friends talk about how their teen would try to look for a job after their camp or family trip, etc. so I think there is a lot of that where we are.

Hopefully, it worked out for him and he was able to find someone who was ok with a minimum wage job with 20 or fewer hours a week who isn’t supported by parents! My daughter only gets two 4.5hr shifts/week at her local job making $12.50/hr, so I don’t know how businesses expect anyone other than students to be able to do that.

I have a small design business myself, but have kept volume low enough to handle everything on my own for a few years now. I had assistants for a few years but realized I could make the same money by lowering volume and reducing that overhead. I know the ebb and flow of business makes it hard to plan out schedules, but one thing that may help businesses keep staff from taking off so many weekends is to post a schedule that is more than 1-week out. Post a month at a time so people can plan, and there may be fewer requests for time off. Build it into the job description that someone works X number of weekends in a row, then gets 1 off, or rotate who is on weekends, etc.

My best friend in high school was a lifeguard at a water park, and it was a crazy job! She handled it well but, did have to resuscitate an older man once. I wouldn’t want my teens to have that on their shoulders but I’m thankful there are folks out there who can do it.

Yes, can be really frightening if kids need to save someone. The beaches near us, stopped having lifeguards during Covid. They never came back.

I think the towns used to all pay quite a bit for outdoor lifeguards and took on liability. Now they just post signs to be careful while swimming. Every year there are some drownings within 20 miles. It’s sad. People who have kids take them to the “safer” beaches. Tourists can be out of luck if they have no idea about currents or riptides.

there are many places do that require 18. The petstores have that requiremetn (petsmart/petco) because they deal with animals. So they are always short staffed and this is not seasonal work.
The best places would be seasonal. Camps always seem to need staff. (especially sleepaway camps). One camp this summer actually did overhire to compensate for “I need to go to the beach for a week”, or the unfortunate “I have covid” and it seems to have worked out well for them. They took the burden when they were overstaffed.
Ice cream places, parks, etc . Also hours do matter as someone else said, that during school year not available mornings for example.
The ghosting is horrible, both for part time, and full time, internships and experienced jobs (my H has been interviewing ). my D got ghosted on a job , to later find out that they decided they did not need that role, but that was months later. Would have been nice so she could have moved on. What happened to the “thanks, but no thanks”

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Lol my son and his friend took the course and test, his friend never had a lesson in his life, my son stopped around 8. They are good athletes and were in great shape, swam a lot including the ocean. They almost died but passed! All of the others testing has on their swim team suits, my son and his friend had on board shorts. The instructor told them their swimming wasn’t pretty, but they passed what they needed. My son only works a few days a week, he’s not very motivated, I suspect there are more hours to be had.