Summer jobs for youths much scarcer this year

Youths looking for jobs this summer have been considerably worse off than they were last year, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The agency's Bureau of Labor Statistics said that 15.1 million youths had jobs this summer but that 3 million were out of work.

The number of youths aged 16 to 21 with jobs declined by 700,000 from July 1979 to July 1980, and the number of unemployed youths was 520,000 higher. As a result, the youth unemployment rate rose from 13.4 percent to 16.4 percent, and was the highest since the 18.3 percent recorded in July 1975.

The rise in unemployment occurred in about the same proportion among black and white youths. The rate for whites rose to about 14 percent and for blacks, to 33 percent.