Teen employment

[BigRedBuster]

I found this article interesting since I have three kids ages 16, 19, 20.

 

Finding them jobs as teens has been frustrating at times and an eye opener as far as opportunities for teens.

 

LINK

 

The improving job market is gradually beginning to benefit teens, who are often among the first to lose jobs during a recession and the last to find them in a recovery. During the 2008-2009 recession, the share of Americans ages 16 to 19 working during the summer plummeted from 40 percent to less than 30 percent, a steeper drop than for the population at large. But last year, the teen employment rate rose to 32 percent, and with the unemployment rate now below 5 percent, most experts expect even more teens to find jobs this year.

 

That rebound, however, has barely made a dent in the decades-long declinein teen employment. In the summer of 1995, more than half of teens age 16 to 19 worked in the summer; today, less than a third do. The drop has been especially steep for boys, who are now less likely than girls to work during the summer. Experts attribute the decline to a variety of forces: the disappearance of many entry-level jobs, the rising share of young people spending their summers in school or other educational activities and, at least recently, a rising minimum wage. (Employers may not see teen workers — especially those with less experience or fewer skills — as worth $10 or more per hour.)

 

I am a firm believer that people learn their work ethic as a teen. Jobs for teens can be an important step for success for these future adults.

 

It's sad that so many opportunities for kids just isn't there anymore.

[huKSer]

I agree teens benefit from having jobs (summer or during the school year)

 

Fifteen years ago I'd go to a fast food place and see a bunch of my students working. Ten years ago during the recession, I'd see a bunch of my student's parents working. I am now seeing more teens than adults.

 

Steady teen job markets seem to be babysitting, life guarding and around here, Worlds of Fun and moving companies. We are in a vary mobile community.

 

The article clip doesn't mention this, maybe the article does, how many teens don't want to find jobs and spend the summer inside playing video games? My son had to apply for jobs, didn't get any. Later on I he confessed he put $20/hour for a starting salary so he wouldn't get hired.

 

The other extreme I have 3 - 5 students every year who are the primary wage earners for their family. They work a lot of hours, miss many mornings and don't do well in class.

[Enhance]

My first job ever was at Walgreens when I was 16 making minimum wage, and I ended up working there through college.

 

I remember I met a guy in college who had never had a job before and his parents basically funded him entirely by having him do "chores" - aka mow the lawn and get $100. Or, just by helping out around the house, they would give him cash and pay off his credit card bills. His parents were fairly wealthy, too.

 

His work ethic was terrible and he never earned very good grades and I always associated this with the fact that he'd never really worked before.

[BigRedBuster]

I agree teens benefit from having jobs (summer or during the school year)

 

Fifteen years ago I'd go to a fast food place and see a bunch of my students working. Ten years ago during the recession, I'd see a bunch of my student's parents working. I am now seeing more teens than adults.

 

Steady teen job markets seem to be babysitting, life guarding and around here, Worlds of Fun and moving companies. We are in a vary mobile community.

 

The article clip doesn't mention this, maybe the article does, how many teens don't want to find jobs and spend the summer inside playing video games? My son had to apply for jobs, didn't get any. Later on I he confessed he put $20/hour for a starting salary so he wouldn't get hired.

 

The other extreme I have 3 - 5 students every year who are the primary wage earners for their family. They work a lot of hours, miss many mornings and don't do well in class.

 

The article touches on there are a number of reasons for kids not working as much. The recession took a lot of teen jobs away. But, more kids are going to summer school or some other type of educational activity in the summer.

 

I have said before (sorry if I offend someone) but our worst demographic to hire are males under 30. On average, this group doesn't show up, doesn't understand work....etc.

[BigRedBuster]

One thing that I don't understand is the title. Maybe I missed it in the article but it doesn't make sense to me. It claims poor kids have a harder time finding a summer job than rich kids.

 

If you own a McDonalds or a lawn mowing business, I fail to see why a poor kid can't find that job when the rich kid can. My wild ass guess on this is that the rich kid comes from a family whose parents grew up with a summer job and have a good work ethic...etc. Meanwhile, many poor kids grow up in a home that is poor because the parents don't understand how to keep a job.

 

I know that's a huge generality but when you look at national statistics, your already looking a huge generalities.

[funhusker]

One thing that I don't understand is the title. Maybe I missed it in the article but it doesn't make sense to me. It claims poor kids have a harder time finding a summer job than rich kids.

 

If you own a McDonalds or a lawn mowing business, I fail to see why a poor kid can't find that job when the rich kid can. My wild ass guess on this is that the rich kid comes from a family whose parents grew up with a summer job and have a good work ethic...etc. Meanwhile, many poor kids grow up in a home that is poor because the parents don't understand how to keep a job.

 

I know that's a huge generality but when you look at national statistics, your already looking a huge generalities.

To add, a lot of the time teenagers get jobs because their parent's "know someone" or people know their parents, especially in small towns. I have no idea on a percentage but my guess is it would be significant. It's nothing shady, but poeple will hire familiar people when possible for entry level jobs like babysitting, mowing, helping out at local businesses. People with more money, tend to have more connections with people that are looking for workers.

[Red Five]

 

I agree teens benefit from having jobs (summer or during the school year)

 

Fifteen years ago I'd go to a fast food place and see a bunch of my students working. Ten years ago during the recession, I'd see a bunch of my student's parents working. I am now seeing more teens than adults.

 

Steady teen job markets seem to be babysitting, life guarding and around here, Worlds of Fun and moving companies. We are in a vary mobile community.

 

The article clip doesn't mention this, maybe the article does, how many teens don't want to find jobs and spend the summer inside playing video games? My son had to apply for jobs, didn't get any. Later on I he confessed he put $20/hour for a starting salary so he wouldn't get hired.

 

The other extreme I have 3 - 5 students every year who are the primary wage earners for their family. They work a lot of hours, miss many mornings and don't do well in class.

 

The article touches on there are a number of reasons for kids not working as much. The recession took a lot of teen jobs away. But, more kids are going to summer school or some other type of educational activity in the summer.

 

I have said before (sorry if I offend someone) but our worst demographic to hire are males under 30. On average, this group doesn't show up, doesn't understand work....etc.

 

 

The increase of youth sports makes it hard to get a summer job as well. Hell when I was in HS 20 years ago, the kids who played Legion Baseball in the summer rarely had a job. They would have football lifting and/or basketball open gym in the morning, then would have games starting at 5/6/7 pm. They would have to be at the field at 4pm (or earlier if traveling). No time for a job in that case.

[huKSer]

One thing that I don't understand is the title. Maybe I missed it in the article but it doesn't make sense to me. It claims poor kids have a harder time finding a summer job than rich kids.

 

If you own a McDonalds or a lawn mowing business, I fail to see why a poor kid can't find that job when the rich kid can. My wild ass guess on this is that the rich kid comes from a family whose parents grew up with a summer job and have a good work ethic...etc. Meanwhile, many poor kids grow up in a home that is poor because the parents don't understand how to keep a job.

 

I know that's a huge generality but when you look at national statistics, your already looking a huge generalities.

It might be that the poor live in depressed areas. What jobs there are are given to adults. And I've read articles that say children of parents on welfare have already "given up" on being successful.

 

I don't think the rich kids have a higher percent of students wanting to work, they just have more opportunity. There is also nepotism. "Here's your paycheck for $20/hour, thank you for going around the office and counting how many bags of skittles are in the vending machine" The wealthy also have more opportunity to do summer activities.

 

As far as students spending their summers in school or other educational activities. With educational "reform" students who fail during the year, the students that must retake courses in the summer are mostly poor. The middle class and wealthy do the "other activities" - which I feel are summer sports camps, travelling competitive teams (basketball, softball, baseball, volleyball, etc) that are "voluntary" to play for the HS team.

[BigRedBuster]

I'm sure all the above comments play into the situation.

 

In general though, I wish we had more jobs available for teens.

[84HuskerLaw]

There is also the changing workplace as government regulations have increased dramatically in the workplace generally. These 'safety' and other similar purposes for the regulations on the employers have made hiring any worker more expensive. It is not just the wages and benefits that are required (minimum wage laws, health insurance, etc) but also the safety, insurance, etc. Hiring a teenager for part time or summer months for example would be extremely more complicated and likely costly for an employer. The insurance requirement alone would make hiring temporary youth workers non-sensical. The employer would likely be obligated for a year's insurance costs for someone working for a couple months and then expecting to quit to return to school in the fall, etc. There are also time restrictions on how long a school aged worker can work during the school year. These sorts of rules make hiring kids impossible or cost prohibitive. Back in the 1960s, 70s and even into the 80s, hiring young people was simple and beneficial for all parties. The young learned the ethics of work and gained valuable experience while the employer gained less costly trainees and potential long term workers in the process. There are also many jobs today that kids are not allowed to do for insurance or other regulatory reasons that we could do in the 70s and so on. There are also many jobs back then that have been displaced by machines, etc.

[huKSer]

Good point 84. I came back just to make this point about OSHA and insurance.

 

Solutions? Hate to say this but government summer jobs program is one option. Interesting that the government isn't required to follow their own requirements. Another is entrepreneurship - but that requires ambition and opportunity.

[Moiraine]

It was explained within the article itself why poor kids don't get jobs as easily. E.g. they live in depressed areas and are less likely to own cars, so they can't even drive out of those areas to find the jobs that are elsewhere.

[BigRedBuster]

It was explained within the article itself why poor kids don't get jobs as easily. E.g. they live in depressed areas and are less likely to own cars, so they can't even drive out of those areas to find the jobs that are elsewhere.

OK...then what this is talking about is poor kids in certain neighborhoods.

 

If you are a poor kid in most communities in Nebraska (let's say), you will pretty much have access to just as many jobs as rich kids.(as it pertains to what you wrote)

 

 

I guess the issue I have with looking at it the way you said it states in the article is that adults in that area probably don't have jobs either. So, of course if the adults don't have jobs available, the kids aren't going to either.

 

That's a different problem than two kids standing in front of you...one poor and one rich and everyone's giving the rich kid the job.

[Moiraine]

 

It was explained within the article itself why poor kids don't get jobs as easily. E.g. they live in depressed areas and are less likely to own cars, so they can't even drive out of those areas to find the jobs that are elsewhere.

OK...then what this is talking about is poor kids in certain neighborhoods.

 

If you are a poor kid in most communities in Nebraska (let's say), you will pretty much have access to just as many jobs as rich kids.(as it pertains to what you wrote)

 

 

I guess the issue I have with looking at it the way you said it states in the article is that adults in that area probably don't have jobs either. So, of course if the adults don't have jobs available, the kids aren't going to either.

 

That's a different problem than two kids standing in front of you...one poor and one rich and everyone's giving the rich kid the job.

 

 

To the bolded; true, but that's not what the article was claiming. It's just stating the facts, and even stated what the reasons probably are. There's on sentence that says class might be a factor. "And they may face discrimination based on race, class or other factors."

 

To the rest, they're talking about the overall country. In Nebraska there might not be a big difference (or any difference) but overall there is. Most people live in cities, and so do most poor people.