Teens in U.S. Find Summer Jobs Elusive as Shops, Restaurants Eliminate Workers

[marmar]

from Bloomberg:



U.S. Slowdown Frustrates Teens Seeking Summer Jobs (Update1)

By Timothy R. Homan

June 6 (Bloomberg) -- Teenagers are finding it increasingly difficult to get work for the summer, particularly in the retail industry, as the U.S. labor market softens.

The teenage jobless rate soared to 18.7 percent in May from 15.4 percent the month before, the biggest increase since the Labor Department began keeping the statistics in 1948, a government report showed today. That helped drive the total U.S. unemployment rate up by a half percentage point to 5.5 percent.

The tough job market for teens is another sign of the widening effects of the economic downturn that began with a slump in housing and spread to the financial industry. Now, retailers such as bookseller Borders Group Inc., clothing retailer Talbots Inc. and movie-rental chain Blockbuster Inc. are trimming payrolls as consumers rein in spending.

``I've put in a lot of applications -- no calls yet,'' Kip Nichols, 17, of Dallas, said in a telephone interview. He said he's applied for six openings, most of them full-time retail positions at book or clothing stores in local malls, and hopes to continue working part time when he goes back to school in the fall.

Total U.S. payrolls have declined for five straight months as economic growth weakened. Consumer spending growth is slowing after a slide in home values, record energy costs and the credit crisis hit household budgets. The unemployment rate for teenagers has climbed from 12.8 percent in May 2000.

First Affected

Teens are among the first to feel the effects of a slowing job market, said Joseph McLaughlin, a research associate at Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies in Boston.

``That's what's going to hurt them this summer,'' McLaughlin said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. ``They're kind of lowest in the hiring queue, so we need strong job growth so employers have to dig down and hire those 16- and 17-year-olds who have limited job experience.''

McLaughlin is co-author of an April study that says the outlook for teen employment this summer is the worst in 60 years. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aO1DY7fkcd9A&refer=home

[YDogg]

1. hopefully they'll remember this - and their parents will - in November ...

... as soon as they are eligible to vote.

[Deja Q]

2. I saw a few 'help wanted' signs yesterday

For retail, non-thinking* jobs...

So I first thought the article was more speculative garbage, but then they talked about wanting experience. Kinda hard to get experience when no opportunities exist?



* Stacking, sorting, unpacking, arranging - like how you never see perishable goods' cans in proper FIFO order because the employees can't be bothered or know that most single people will dig anyway...

[KharmaTrain]

7. He Was Looking For Full-Time

I see help wanted signs as well...almost all are part-time 10-15 hour a week...mostly going for older, second incomes. The downturn in the economy has more 35+ out looking for jobs competiting with the ones teens usually filled...it's a ripple that's been happening for a while. For example, my local "big box" hardware store...it used to be nothing but kids stocking and running the registers...now it's a lot older. These people are more "stable" than teens and there's less turnover.

Good luck on anyone trying to find fulltime...

Cheers...

[Saphire]

3. My 17 yo daughter is having a hard time finding a summer job....

she says they are all taken by people like me, adults that have taken second part-time jobs. I believe her.

And yes, she's to young to vote this time, but just wait till next election.

I also have a 14yo son. He and his friends all believe that B*shs war is a lie and there is no way in hell they will volunteer to go fight for him. I believe that change will come, but in the form of our children. {{sniff, I'm so proud of our young peps}}

[ray of light]

6. The prob. is that many people will enlist OR apply at Haliburten and end up in Iraq.

Halliburton is offering like 40k bonus for going there as a private contracter. Halliburten will tell them if where they're going is part of the 'danger zone' and will up their pay and bonus if they're sent to one of the highly dangerous zones. The question is...who KNOWS if what they claim is only 'moderate danger' is actually a lot graver than Halliburton claims when they sign on. Also, Iraq's situation is fluid. So what is calm today may be hell tomorrow.

[SpiralHawk]

4. Ahhh...just two days ago Commander AWOL Bush was blaming these kids for...

the Republicon recession/depression.

Guess you never have to acknowledge reality when you are catapulting the republicon propaganda, and socking away War Profits in your Swiss Bank account.

[ray of light]

5. Our local college paper already wrote about this a month ago! (Way ahead of Bloomberg)

What took Bloomberg so long?

[Earth_First]

8. Meanwhile we are having trouble filling the ranks in the landscape industry...

This is probably the worst I've seen it in 6 years. Our help wanted sign usually stands by the road for a maximum of three to four weeks in early April before we've found our quota of labor for the summer. However in recent years we've found that we cannot find enough individuals (18-25) who are willing to work a labor intensive job for the summer. The help we have been turning up is par at best. The 'teens' these days want to work retail. In a bottomed out economy the jobs simply aren't available. However there ARE jobs that require a bit of labor to get through the day available, there is simply a smaller pool of individuals willing to take these types of jobs.

[Warpy]

9. I've seen this for seven years, with one difference

Around here, it's newly minted baccalaureate grads from the local university, all going around and begging for jobs selling shoes, videos, plumbing supplies, anything to keep body and soul together while they wait for a nibble on the official resume, a nibble that takes longer every year.

I always remind them who was in office the last time this sort of thing happened, no real jobs for indebted grads, no temp jobs for students, nothing available, don't let the door smack ya...

This coming year, I expect to see no temp Xmas jobs in retail, either, just a lot of managers telling exhausted staff to do more with less, rah rah rah.

This area is also doing better than the country as a whole, something I find particularly frightening.

The other frightening thing is that it is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. We need radical changes to economic thinking in this country, changes Congress won't make until the angry crowds are at the gates.

[Lars39]

10. We need book money for Fall semester.

Ours haven't been able to get a job, or have been hired and then barely given any hours to work at all. :grr: