Why teens have a tough time finding summer work
Many are enrolling in summer classes or doing community service while others are squeezed out by adults competing for the same entry-level jobs.
from the June 12, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
He points to several reasons:
•Immigrants are taking many jobs that used to go to young adults.
•Retirement-age people are returning to the workforce in greater numbers, either part- or full-time.
•Competition from the college-age crowd is up, as many 20-somethings fail to find jobs that match their education. Employers opt for more educated over less-educated applicants.
•Federal funding for summer jobs – often raised in the wake of urban riots or crime waves – has been cut since 2000.
If businesses have good reasons for hiring fewer teens, one result may be a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. In surveys, employers often complain that when today's young people leave high school or college they lack needed skills or a work ethic. One study last year by the business group the Conference Board was titled, "Are they really ready to work?" Employers' answer was no.
In part, what's happening is that careers are requiring more skills in an era of technological change and global commerce. That puts new demands on education and also on employers to provide stepping stones into the workplace.
"You only learn to work by working," says Richard Murnane of the Harvard School of Education in Cambridge, Mass.
Other factors may also be eroding the opportunities for early employment.
A newly passed rise in the federal minimum wage, which takes effect in July, will make employers think twice before opening a position for unskilled help, many economists say. These economists don't necessarily see the minimum wage as bad policy, but some say government subsidies are needed to help young people connect to the world of work.
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