Teenagers Will Continue to Struggle to Find Work This Summer

According to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, just 25.6% of US teens were able to find jobs last summer.

Since the summer of 2006, US teens have had a progressively harder time finding work during the summer months. Here are the numbers from 2006-2010:

% of US Teens with Summer Jobs

2006 - 36.9%
2007 - 34.3%
2008 - 32.4%
2009 - 28.5%
2010 - 25.6%

If you thought that things might improve a bit this summer and that Junior might actually have an easier time finding a job (to help pay for their schooling, or even to help with some of the household bills) - you thought wrong.

According to Northeastern University, "the country is expected to match or be even less than last year's record lows" when it comes to the summer employment of teens nationwide. According to Northeastern, approximately 1 in every 4 teens will be able to find work this summer.

This news can't really be much of a surprise to anybody. After all, McDonald's recently held a "National Hiring Day" and ended up receiving over 1 million applications. Amongst the applicants were experienced workers who had had zero luck finding work anywhere else. With that type of competition for jobs that were traditionally the domain of inexperienced and younger workers, it's no wonder that so few teenagers will be able to find work this summer.

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The inability of the younger members of a household to find summer jobs leads to more stress and strain for the typical American home. With the typical budget already being strained by rising food and gas costs, many teens are having to come to terms with the fact that their post-secondary plans are going to be seriously altered or put on hold. With Mom and Dad feeling the pinch of a sluggish economy, many American teenagers are being forced to borrow much more money in order to attend college.

It's hard to fathom when the employment situation for teenagers will meaningfully improve in the United States.

Source: Boston.com - For teen job-seekers, summer again offers dismal prospects

Filed under: The Economic Meltdown