The Teen Workplace Disengagement Epidemic
Probably because it came out on the same day as the monthly Employment Situation Report — not to mention that it was also published on the Friday before a holiday weekend – an “Editor’s Desk” item at Uncle Sam’s Bureau of Labor Statistics entitled “Youth employment and unemployment in July 2010″ got very little attention. It deserved plenty.
The report led with this paragraph:
In July, the employment-population ratio for youth — the proportion of the 16- to 24-year-old civilian noninstitutional population that was employed — was 48.9 percent. This was the lowest July rate on record for the series, which began in 1948. (The month of July typically is the summertime peak in youth employment.)
It’s the first time this ratio has come in below 50%. In the late 1980s, it was almost 70%. This column will concentrate on the lower portion (ages 16-19) of the 16-24 age bracket.
One would expect the employment-population ratio for those in the age 16-19 cohort to be lower, and it is; but you might be surprised by how much. The July 2010 ratio for this subgroup (not seasonally adjusted) was 31.3%. That is also a low since records have been kept, and represents the fourth consecutive year with a record-breaking low. In July 2006, the analogous percentage was 44.9%. From 1948 until 2002, it was only rarely below 50%. The ratio (rounded) reached 60% for a couple of years in the late 1970s and late 1980s.
What in the world is going on here?
One obvious current factor is that those teens who are looking for work aren’t finding it thanks to the economy. Not only have millions of jobs disappeared during the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) economy, but adults (legal citizens and, in many states, illegal immigrants) are also competing for and taking many of the entry-level and even summer jobs that still exist. The July 2010 unemployment rate for teens (again, not seasonally adjusted) was 26.5%, setting a since-1948 July record for the second year in a row, crushing the 24.8% rate in July 2009 (this economy is breaking records all over the place, isn’t it?). Before 2009, no July ever had a teen unemployment rate higher than 22.1%.
Perhaps surprisingly, though, it’s not as much a matter of unemployment as it is of disengagement, as this graphic comparing July 1989, the last near-peak July for the teen employment-population ratio, to July 2010, shows:
The graphic demonstrates that even if the teen unemployment rate were the same as it was in 1989, the employment-population ratio would get back only 5.2 of the 28.3 points by which it has declined in the past two-plus decades. The obvious comparatives that stick out are the increases of over 5.3 million in the number of teens not in the labor force (9.680 million compared to 4.321 million), and the near doubling of their percentage of the teen population (57.4% versus 30.4%). Fairly close to six out of every ten teens weren’t even trying to find work in July.
Perhaps it’s a matter of discouragement, as in wanting to work but not actively looking for it because one “knows” there are no jobs out there. To a degree, yes, but not as much as you might think. I looked at July 2006, when the overall unemployment rate in a strong economy was 5%. With roughly the same population as 2010, there were still almost 7.8 million teens not in the labor force. On a population-adjusted basis, that’s well over 2.5 million higher than 1989.
This means, good economy or bad, millions of teens have consciously chosen not to try to enter the workforce. Why?
I bet if a little more research were done, they would find that those who attend church regularly are more likely to be employed or seeking employment. Just a guess. Whether because they have a better grounding, or merely because they know how to say please and thank you.
Regular church attendance looks good on a resume, by the way. (Unless applying for a government job) Church volunteer work looks good, too. Don’t even try to dispute that.
As a business owner I can say I really don’t care if or how often you go to church.
From expensive personal experience, I actively distrust anyone who makes a fuss about their religion. I don’t think I’d care to work for someone who used church attendence as a hiring criteria, either.
However. I suspect that people who quietly go to church make better employees.
Amazing. That attitude is why the country is in such a mess.
It doesn’t matter to you if they regularly attend church? Does that not speak to greater morality and character development? At the very least, they are less likely to STEAL FROM YOU, a huge problem lately being employee theft.
If they have on their resume that they participate in church community activities, like shelters and volunteering to help the elderly take care of themselves, that means nothing to you? Are you MAD?
We have this group of immoral folks in the government ruining everything BECAUSE they are immoral, because people elected (hired) them without checking their character! And you tell me character means nothing in your hiring decisions?!? Are you MAD?
You, sir, are the problem. You got the kind of government you deserve.
With respect to church attendance, I expect that to some extent, it depends on whether you live in Red America or Blue America. Red America sees what that means, Blue America doesn’t.
Beyond that, I agree with the general tenor of the remarks that thanks mainly to the damn fools in Washington we no longer have an economy that needs or desires the kind of labor that teenagers can provide.
I have a soon to be post-teenager in my household. He’s made a not too desperate attempt to find work, and keeps poking around hoping something will turn up. He’s taking a full load at the local community college, but that doesn’t require all his time. Meanwhile, he’s in a rock band and likes to work out at the gym. What he ought to do is join the army, but he’s disqualified for reasons he’s not responsible for and can’t change. Fortunately we can support him for a while, and like having him around. It’s clear, though, that he’s not happy being dependent on us, and he’d certainly like a place of his own!
And, of course, he suffers from being a non-minority male, last in line for everything as the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons. I think that the Great Recession, together with the institutionalized anti-white male bias we now have, is going to result in the marginalization of a large number of men who will never become very productive citizens and fathers, to our great loss.
It depends on the church. The large urban Black inner cities are filled with mega churches and many of them are not dissimilar to the social justice indoctrination mills like the church of Reverend Wright that were the nuturing ground for our current President.
In the Black community the churches line buses up on election day and run multiple trips back and forth to the voting booths to make sure they win those elections that keep the mana flowing from the redistribution process. In Baltimore enough “votes” are created to pretty much assure the liberal Democratic hacks maintain complete one party control of any state wide office.
I disagree.
My daughter, 17, an “a” student etc..put out 53 applications. NOt one response. It was a short, nice resume to go with the application.
Church is “never” mentioned on the applications. She has never been in trouble, volunteers at the animal shelter etc. In all the places she went back to…they were people that could speak Spanish. She is only starting Spanish this year. Church, I do not believe has any impact at all
HOWEVER, HOWEVER!!! .Can you speak Spanish?, yep, THAT’S THE CORKER
She has quit trying. Try going to Mc Donalds and understand what they are saying, better yet, have them understand you, try WalMart..to even ask a question you best understand Spanish. iT DOES NO GOOD TO APPLY AROUND HERE
Better start learning Spanish. We speak English here in the USA, you say?
Not anymore. It is a demographic reality. Roll with it or fight it, but don’t sit and whine about it.
“She has quit trying. Try going to Mc Donalds and understand what they are saying, better yet, have them understand you, try WalMart..to even ask a question you best understand Spanish. iT DOES NO GOOD TO APPLY AROUND HERE”
You know, I grew up in Southern California (and am there now), and spent two years in South Texas (as in, in many places they accept pesos), and have never experienced this. Sure, I’ve worked in jobs where this is the case, but in warehousing-type stuff, or overnight jobs, you don’t generally need to deal with customers. And at the restaurants, you can hear the employees talking in Spanish, but whoever is working the register knows English.
But I have had problems with Asians in places like you’ve described. In both California and Texas. It’s weird – I know Spanish well enough to deal with it if I have to (I should be way better, but that’s neither here nor there), but I’m totally lost in those sorts of situations – they just come out of nowhere.
I speak pretty good if not fluent Spanish, now have a college degree and almost another, started working when i was 15 and none of that did me any good when i started looking for work after a move. I had to settle for a job a recent highschool graduate should be doing that requires none of the skills I’ve picked up. Besides, why try working when the government will give you insurance until you most of the way to 30? How much longer until simple studio apartment with cafeterias and broadband are provided?
I started working in a lumber mill in Northeast Georgia in 1964 making less than a dollar an hour when I was just 14 years old, I continued until I finished high school and went to college, and worked there too, and except for a couple of self imposed breaks between jobs, I have been working at all sorts of jobs since then. I have also found that I could always find work if I wanted it, not that it all paid princely sums, but it did pay the bills. All of my kids have also managed to find work and go to school too. I know that the situation today is far different from the 1960′s the Golden Age of America, but however bad it is, teenagers and adults still have the responsibility to provide for themselves and their families. Perhaps too many young people now idolize President Barack Obama who never seems to have worked a day in his life, and they think they too can just lay back and let the system move them up the ladder too, just like Obama did.
Well too bad, Barack Obama and Michele too, were one offs who managed to successfully manipulate the system and parlay their dark skin color into big bucks.
Everybody else is going to have to work hard to get ahead!
where we live, all the “teen” jobs are now taken by adults, who probably feel lucky to have them.
You are right.
I know that because I am one of them.
I have over thirty years of IT experience, but due to outsourcing and the recent economic collapse, I cannot find a job or even a short-term contract in that field. Instead, I am working as a retail clerk, and yes, I am lucky to have that job.
Great article! My daughter, who is 19 now, started working at 16. . . she wanted to drive ,have a car , etc. I bought her an old clunker, but she had to pay for gas, insurance, etc.She quickly learned that freedom comes with responsibilities, and not many of her friends knew much about either. They depended on mommy and daddy for everything, and in fact were offended when my daughter would suggest to them that they too should “grow up a little and get a job” These kids parents too, were piously condemnnatory in their view of our teaching our daughter to act responsibly.”How can you make her work?!” we often heard. “She needs to be having fun, and being a kid” were common comments we heard. I think the one that took the cake, by a mother of 2 college age daughters, was ” Poor Madie works so hard. . . .OUR girl’s jobs are to go to school!” while they wondered why their kids never came home to visit them on Spring Break. I am extremely proud of my daughter- she works, goes to school ( pursuing a degree in Criminal Justice)and has a real idea what making it in life is all about. Who would you want to hire on Graduation. the kid who has experience, shows they can handle responsibility, and has a work ethic, or the Grad whose job for 4 years was ” going to school”?
If you can afford to put all your time into studying without the added distraction of a job, that’s really ideal. I’m not going to degrade any kid who chooses to do that. As someone who has hired many kids out of college, it made no difference in their quality of work whether they worked during college or spent the time studying.
Just my personal experience.
At least in the corporate world, they don’t care whether the kid worked or not. HR has been downsized to just have a small number of “representative” employees — black, hispanic, female, gay. The rest is just software, and low paid contract workers who do data entry from the resumes or correct the information that was scanned in.
Result is basically: do you have a 4 year degree yes/no?
If no, discard resume. If yes, continue.
That is it. That is the whole of it. And it doesn’t matter if the applicant went to a “good” school that cost $50K per year or a dirt cheap $10K per year cow college or even a $6K per year online university. It is just a check box.
Now for the interview it may matter but not much. Mainly they are looking for a warm body who conforms to black, hispanic, female, gay and then after that — is the applicant clean (bathed), no piercings, polite, knows to wear a suit — and oh yeah — last place — what was your degree in?
If you are white and male, or asian/indian male/female; then if you are clean, polite, wearing a suit, and can speak to the area of hire (accounting for finance, technology for IT) then you may get hired if they have filled the quota for black/hispanic/female/gay slots. But don’t expect too much — after all, for people who actually “do the work” they prefer to hire “experienced hires” anyway.
Again, the above is if you plan to work for “big corp”.
This is a disaster that you can lay directly at the liberal Progressive doorstep. The insanity of increasing the minimum wage in July of 2009 right in the middle of the recession not only shocked small employers as the cost of the least productive members of their staff skyrocketed from $5.40 to $7.25/hour is obvious. That combined with the Left’s other hobby horse of unlimited illegal immigration makes for a tough comparison for all low skill workers but especially teenagers. Who would willingly pay $7.25/hour for totally unskilled labor when you can get skilled Mexican adults for $5 cash and no matching Social Security,Medicare or unemployment taxes or paperwork?
If we don’t get these communist Cloward and Piven nutjobs out from behind the wheel of our nation we are all toast. Vote in November like your future depended on it. More than likely it does.
((How, or even when, will disengaged teens, especially those who eventually move directly into so-called “professional” careers out of school, ever learn or appreciate these lessons?))
The answer and absolute proof to that question now occupies the White House……
Proud parents make for great patriots. Congratulations all of you on your families. It is sad that it has become somewhat of a novelty to be a working teenager. We have clearly lost our way as a nation. It is time to turn to our moral past and get back on the path to a positive life. Think of how much we have lost in sending our parental spouse back to work full time to pay for that larger house. It was thought it would always be a store of value for us and of course then we should sacrifice everything to make sure we could have the biggest most impressive one two working adults could afford. Look where that has gotten us. And the other reason we chased the expensive places to live? The quality of the local schools for our children. How are those public unionized schools working out for you? Behind all of this is an over reaching and malignant cancer of a Government that needs to be cut out before it destroys the host.
Well, I was beginning to ponder about the state of our children today, but after reading the first few posts, I realized this was going to turn into a brag about me and how hard I worked, or brag about me and what a responsible parent I am, or brag about my children and how much better they are than other children, so…
Bleck!
You’re quite right.
Geez guys, maybe you could steer the comments in a different direction.
Lynn: I am damn proud of my daughter, and why shouldn’t I be?! She has shown the maturity to deal with life. . . I can’t help it if other kids are content to let mommy and daddy hold their hands for them . . . those paerents know deep down that in the end, they are not helping their kids. . .
Communist destruction of America is near completion.Kid’s are dumb-down by Leftist Educators, Video games, junk-food,TRAITORS who hire illegals…Kid’s will wake up 1 day & wonder WTF happened & wish that Mon & Dad were still alive to hand them everything.
two words: MINIMUM WAGE
It is ironic that so many of these younger people also supported Obama in 2008. So, how’s that “Hope and Change” working out for you now? Just shows how Democrats use young people as their useful idiots when campaigning for office. But, once elected, Democrats could care less about employment for young people. If you’re not in a union or a government worker, Democrats don’t want to hear from you in between elections. But when an election comes up, they need young people as campaign workers, to make calls, ring doorbells, and hand out flyers. Hopefully, young people will now realize that you need more than a good slogan to get somebody’s vote. You should vote for a person who has actually DONE something in life, or managed something in life (such as a business, or a town, or a city, or a state). Good rhetoric makes for nice TV, but it makes a lousy administrator. Results are what should count in a candidate, NOT promises. I hope young people have learned that tough lesson by now.
As a 40 year old looking back at my teens:
In public school, there was almost a campaign for kids not to get after school or summer jobs. Us kids and our parents were lectured with lines such as: “We would just spend the money on drugs”, “You have your whole life to work”, “School activities are much more important”…. blah blah blah.
These lectures were followed by pushes to get us signed up for additional sports or other activities that would pretty much dominate our lives six days a week, all day and part of the night. Given my visceral hatred of school, the idea of being trapped there was a non-starter. My parents, after a couple years of protests by me, finally relented and allowed me out of most of the school sports, music, and other activities which I had no interest in.
Instead I got an after school and summer job working at a seafood market, at 16 years of age making $3.35 and hour (cash under the table). This was one of the most valuable experiences of my youth:
I was out of the supervision of paternalistic adults and their coddling and nanny-isms. They were replaced by a patriarchal boss who demanded performances and rewarded it (more pay…. more hours) when he got it.
I had spending money that allowed me to make my own financial decisions, save money, and learn a level of independence that my peers did not have. No.. I didn’t spend it on drugs. I had thousands of dollars saved up for when I went to college and I bought an old 1972 Nova that in itself was another learning experience (greatly expanded my mechanical skills keeping that rust bucket running).
I grew up by being placed in the grownup world. After two years I had an idea of where I wanted to go and what my aptitudes were. I did end up going to college (I previously had no desire to do so). However, I waited, taking an extra year of preparatory work at a private school to make up for what I lacked in public school. I graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1994.
My Mom commented that all her friends (kids same age as me) had to fill out their kids college applications and even write their required essays. Their kids were drones. Her friends expressed shock that I did all the applications and essays on my own (I did ask a teacher at the private school to proofread for me though… this was the days before computer spell check). All she did was take road trips with me on college visits (she actually liked that). Having a few years of being able to run aspects of my own life gave me the attitude and skills necessary.
Sports, music, art, and after school clubs aren’t for everyone. Sometimes the best off-campus learning environment is a job.
I can’t agree with you more. I’m now 22 and have worked for an industrial electric contractor since I was 16. My friends in high school ridiculed me for working so hard for the same minimum wage they got flipping burgers, but damn if I didn’t learn the value of hard work and respect for those men who do that for a living. The real kicker has been my college teachers who didn’t understand or were scared by my ability to work with my hands; one even called it “shameful and unprofessional”. To Hell with them.
First one real data point:
1. My daughter worked in High School. We moved. She tried to find a new job and she could not. Not lazy immoral, not some weak moral fibre so some people can feel better about themselves. Watching her look and look and not find anything is why I have begin monthly (small) political donations.
Second, despite what some might say its hard to do a good job at two hard jobs at the same time. School is a job. Its an important one.
I worked through University and Graduate school so yes, it can be done. But I really question if it was easy for you other guys was the school or major you chose just not demanding enough? My last year of Graduate school I only had to work weekends and I got a lot more out of my classes than i could read my books at ight instead of my night job. Bare survival in classes is not the same thing as absorbing the full amount of knowledge. Most people have limited bandwidths and its hard for them to do two big jobs at once. ALtho we try.
simply put the intrusion of government into free enterprise messes EVERYTHING up.
it’s the government STUP!D !
Lets also add recently-enacted onerous teen-driving laws as well. Many states now only offer “graduated” licenses where teens (16 and 17 yrs) either
1) have to be accompanied by a over 18 or 21 passenger and/or
2) the teen cannot drive multiple underage passengers (the final nail in carpooling/HOV’s coffin?).
This disincents law-abiding teens who dont want to burn up their meager earnings on traffic fines. Working parents with a long commute or schedule that doesnt align with the teen’s schedule cant drive or accompany their kids. Even if the magic groups of teens that worked summers or weekends in the field or at the meatpacking plant emerged, they would commuting while in violation of some bass-ackward driving laws.
And finally, these laws plus the cars-are-evil ethos taught in the schools are chipping away at the the “car once you turn 16″ end-all be-all dream that served as the primary motivation for many teens to work.
Your additional point about driving laws is a great one, though I would admit to being surprised and skeptical that enviro PC could have the ability to outweigh a kid’s desire to have his or her own car.
I don’t have a cars are evil ethos, but I would like to see far more training for 90% of the teens out there before allowing them to drive, and especially to carry passengers. There is a reason why teens are so expensive to insure. On average, unless they’ve had advanced training beyond the “learn basic operation” of the current testing, they are hazard on the road.
Mr. Blumer:
“How, or even when, will disengaged teens, especially those who eventually move directly into so-called “professional” careers out of school, ever learn or appreciate these lessons?”
From their professors in college, who know all about that, right?
Or maybe they’ll learn it as undergrads and graduates with economically useless degrees. Some of the best dishwashers, (we call ‘em “pearl-divers” aboard a ship), have liberal arts degrees.
By the way, Mr. Blumer, thank you for discussing “teens” those who actually ARE teens.
That little sophistical trick of counting as “teens” or “children” those who are above the age of 19, (properly termed “adults”), was a fairly common scam in the “gun-control” debate…usually when the pro-”gun-control” side needed to pad the “body count” so that they could grab a free headline.
It’s funny to remember my first day of summer vacation the year I turned 16. I was quietly asleep when my Dad came and woke me up at 7AM. He said to get up because we were going somewhere. On the way I asked him where we were going? He said that he got me a job as a janitor at a grade school for the summer. He dropped me off and said I’ll pick you up at 4:30. I asked as he left how many hours I was going to have to work per week. He said 40 and took off down the road. Good ole Dad! I miss him still.
I don’t understand. My grand-daughter managed to work at a good job all through high school. This summer, following her freshman year in college, she had a great job. We just heard that she now has a good part-time job for her sophomore year at San Francisco State.
I have noticed one thing. She goes after jobs very aggressively.
I don’t know about where you are, but where I am, the signs of depression are seeping into the economic picture.
I am a skilled field service engineer in electronics. I WAS being paid $31.50 two years ago when I was laid off. I was unemployed continuously until February this year, when I got a temporary job in Europe for $39.50 an hour, expenses paid, now completed.
All I could find before that were $10.00 an hour jobs that I was “way over qualified” for. Now, those jobs are $8 to $8.50. I can’t afford to drive to work for those wages. Take taxes and ‘other’ deductions and you are being paid peanuts.
I understand the cycle. In recession you get rid of high end wage earners and hire capable young replacements and work through the learning stages. In depression wages are the first thing to drop. Prices remain high until lack of demand brings failure to your door step, making wage earners continue to pay the price for economic sluggishness.
Where I live, jobs for young people are what I used to call “work.” I mean real work. Today, they won’t touch those jobs because they aren’t in air conditioned modern businesses. And they pay poorly.
Hey;
Enter “ETO” if these results don’t paint:
http://www.rigzone.com/jobs/search_job_results.asp
Good Luck.
These days, it would be against the law for a 16-year old to work 48 hours a week. Child labor laws cap 17-and-under workweeks at 40 hours when school is not in session and 24 hours when it is.
I run a youth soccer league for around 1200 kids from 4 to 19. We would like to run a concession for a couple of hours in the evening and for around 8 hours on Saturday. On Saturdays we need around 4 people for that 8 hours and we offer slightly better than minimum wage.
And yet….despite out best efforts to recruit at the local high school and at the local community college we cannot get anyone to work.
I wonder if some of the cause of high unemployment among teenagers and young adults is that they just don’t have the desire to work.
How many of the kids in your soccer league are ages 14-19? I’m sure some of the parents would love to defray some of the fees by having their players put in some off-hours at the concession stand. A lot of prep schoolers from less than silver spoon backgrounds put in time in the kitchen or serving their peers.
In order to work unsupervised they would need to be 16, so that would limit us to only the U-19′s and we only have two teams. And of course those teams travel, so they are not available on the weekends and during the week they practice and are not available then either.
Unemployment in our community is higher than the national average and among youth it is particularly pernicious and yet all those able to work would rather hang out than to earn some relatively easy money that requires little of them other than just to show up.
I think it’s a combination of reasons, many of which have been discussed previously.
The government has made it hard for kids to work. Between rising minimum wages, worker safety laws, restricted hours, competition from criminal aliens, there is far less incentive to hire a kid who may wind up getting you sued for something.
The Liberal ethic, pushed in the schools, disincentivizes work. I keep hearing how hard it is to find Americans to work at any price.
We are too wealthy. Kids don’t need to work. Mommy and Daddy will simply shovel some money at them.
For the past three summers, I have been hiring young men from my congregation (mostly contemporaries of my daughters) to do landscaping and similar tasks around my large home.
The good: Out of probably 50 applicants / tryouts I have culled 5 who truly can be said, at an average age of 16, to have potential as excellent workers in whatever field of endeavor they choose. They show up when required and take the position seriously; they put in a good days work (amply rewarded in addition to wages by treats, such as free lunch sandwiches at boss’s expense); they take the initiative; they are diligent; they respond to instruction. Many of these kids have numerous siblings, so anything above luxuries would not be available to them. I know that in at least one case, the parents take a large portion of the money to support food and rent expenses.
The bad: It was clear that I was the only game in town, as well before school ended I had by word of mouth alone at least 6 applicants for every position.
The ugly: Those who take advantage of my good nature. It takes me at least a week before the worker “gets it” — is working at a pace where I can say that he’s worth the money. Some work a few days then quit (sufficient money having accrued to buy an ipod and other toys); some do not show up at all; some require so much supervision as to render them more or less useless.
The impossible: Both federal and state law make it difficult to hire youths 14+ years, though many are mentally and physically capable of doing light to medium manual labor. In other words, there is no economic incentive for companies in landscaping, renovation etc. to replace their numerous illegals. Pity. I have the evidence that the money is needed for education (one boyscout marched down the Mall this summer at the Jamboree having earned his way there working for me); for food and clothing; and to stimulate ambition. Two of my workers — in 9th and 10th grades respectively — have announced that they are saving to buy a house to fix up when they graduate high school. Now that’s the American spirit!!
Maybe we have such a high teen unemployment rate because we have a government that wants to play babysitter. I mean,Pelosi actually stated that we should not have to worry about working,we could depend on the government while we CHASE OUR DREAMS.
In the Weather Underground Manifiesto they discuss keeping the youth unemployed as a strategy to overturn the gov’t. Looks like Obummer knows the Manifesto well as he’s chummy with so many Underground and SDS radicals. (AYres, Dorhn, A Stein,Jeff Jones etc)
I think the first best day of my life happened in 1960 when I was 12 yrs old and the head librarian of my East Milton library took me aside and said, “You’re here so often, would you like to come after school and help shelve books?” Stunned, I could only nod my head. Oh yes. And then on top of it, they paid me 40 cents/hour. Oh happy frabgulous day.
I have a nephew who tragically deceased at 21 in San Jose in 2005. He was out of high school but not in college. Because he wasn’t working I said to him, “Listen. You must get a job. It doesn’t matter if it’s painting walls, or shelving stock, or tending gardens. You must be up and working.” Sweet as he was, he didn’t say anymore than, “Aunt Gina, you just don’t know. This is San Jose. Those jobs belong to Mexicans.”
Back when I was in high school, I remember looking for a summer job, only to discover that the bulk of employers wanted people over 18. There are a lot of businesses that won’t – presumably for legal or liability reasons – hire someone under 18. Which limits the jobs that those 16 and 17 year olds can get.
If a kid in high school does not need to work..they should not work. School is more important. My kids were not allowed to “work” for a paying job
Working during school does not make you a better person. All three of my kids have graduated from college and have good jobs now. I do not see where a job during school would have helped one way or another. I did not work during high school or college. My husband did,and he says it was hard.
Good parenting can overcome all obstacles. You and your husband obviously had strong values that you passed along to your children and they obviously have done well with your teachings. Most kids in the inner city have at best one parent and even if she is devoted to them, she seldom has the time to devote to their upbringing that any parent would want. For these types of children a chance to work and earn some of their own money is invaluable and a venue to learn many of the values they are not getting at home. Aside from the military( which many Black youth who only have about a 39% graduation rate from high school and can’t qualify for the military)there are few other legal means for these kids to learn much of anything about how to support themselves. For them access to a job is critical as it was for me.
The job market is pretty lousy in that age limit. Of my son’s college-aged friends, all of whom were looking for work, only he and one other found a job – his was a continuation from the previous summer and the other guy did work at his father’s business. When we hired a sitter for the youngest this year thro the local university, we had a ton of over qualified applicants and several of them mentioned that they had applied for 20 or more positions and we were the only interview they received.
It’s a terrible market to be a kid looking for work in.
Formerly teen jobs- gas stations, landscaping, office cleaning, fast food and convenience stores, have been taken over by illegal immigrants, and non-Latinos need not apply.
Some of this is due to the laziness of American teens when it comes to work, the relative wealth of their families in the 90s and 00s, and their busy academic and extra-curricular activities.
But a lot of it is due to the preference of employers for reliable, hard-working, cheap Latinos.
Before the illegal immigration wave, these employers had to juggle part-timers composed of students, high school drop outs, ex-cons, alcoholics and transients. These employees were unreliable and were available for work only at certain times of the day (e.g. after school) and the good ones would often quit as soon as a better job appeared,
illegals were a Godsend to these employers- workers who show up for work on time, will work 12 hour shifts 7 days a week if needed and are afraid to job hop lest their “papers” get examined too closely.
This has resulted in a transfer of wealth to contractors and small business owners and, of course, to Mexico and Central America, at the expense of marginal American workers.
If the US is going to keep employing illegals (and I admire their work ethic and family values) perhaps we need to impose a 25% transfer tax on money sent to Mexico or carried across the border. Money earned in the US should be taxed and spent in the US. The proceeds could be used to provide employers with tax credits for hiring legal American teens.
For the past several years in my area, there are no “summer” jobs. Teens either work year round or they don’t work.
As the author indicates, some teens are too busy with schoolwork or activities during the school year. Certainly the school year is a time for teens to be learning, and I don’t wish to have them shortchange their schoolwork. But in the summer, it’s great to learn to work, and to experience the drudgery of the kind of job one could have without a high school or college diploma.
In my area, hardly anyone will hire a teen without work experience, and last summer one of my kids could not even get a volunteer job with any of 6 different nonprofits. They either required volunteers to be 18, or they had plenty of volunteers.
I grew up in another state but now I live in Los Angeles. Every job that I had as a teenager during the summers would not be available to me now because they are all filled by adult illegal aliens. I washed dishes, bussed tables, parked cars and did landscaping. Not one of these jobs would be open to a teenager in LA.
Interesting variety here. Of all the factors in this, I think the biggest is the difference it makes to WANT to work versus NEEDING to work. American high school kids want to work. Illegals and unemployed adults need to work.
That said, government intrusiveness in the marketplace is absolutely a problem, as is the issue of “readiness for the work world” for many teenagers now. My last 10 years in the Navy (I retired in 2004), I saw the readiness-for-the-work-world decline steadily among new sailors. It took more and more to get them in shape: to understand and process direction, to be motivated and to “own” their tasks, even just to read and write effectively. Attention span was a real problem.
A government employer with a set mission has more flexibility to deal with that than a private employer. It’s not just experience the private employer benefits from by hiring adults, legal or illegal; it’s work ethic.
Something to keep in mind about the culture of 30, 40, 50 years ago is that a lot of HS kids did work part-time, and yet they knew more — a lot more — coming out of HS than today’s graduates. Trying to argue with that is literally ridiculous. A 1970 graduate could read and write at a level many of today’s college grads can’t, had learned more math, and knew more history. He was also far more likely to be prepared for the work world. (And no, I’m not a 1970 grad.)
It’s the whole culture colluding to produce this result, one way or another. The cultural factors that duped so many people into voting for Obama are the same ones that make it harder for teenagers to get jobs, and make teens less likely than ever before to be worth their hire to private employers.
“I saw the readiness-for-the-work-world decline steadily among new sailors. It took more and more to get them in shape: to understand and process direction, to be motivated and to “own” their tasks, even just to read and write effectively. Attention span was a real problem.”
I’ve seen that in the Merchant Marine also, (albeit mostly among the maritime college grads), the hawsepiper officers have it so far over the Academicians that it isn’t even funny.
There’s probably something else you saw also. These kids don’t know, or respect, their “place”…and they certainly don’t respect anyone else’s.
Here aboard I watched a green 3rd mate get into an e-mail argument with a seasoned Chief Engineer (Steam, Motor, Gas Turbine-Any Horsepower), over what viscosity lube oil he was putting in his diesels’ sumps.
This is NOT DONE.
Same ship, last summer a 3rd engineer objected to when the fire and lifeboat drills were being scheduled and decided to make his objections public on the bridge during the after-drill safety meeting BY CALLING FOR A VOTE in the Master’s presence.
Unthinkable.
In the 18th century, this kind of insubordination would have gotten one hanged.
In the 19th century, it would have gotten one flogged.
In the 20th century, it would have gotten one beached at the next port.
A ship at sea, (even a Merchant vessel), is not some effin’ debating society.
These young doofii pollywogs are mis-learning “equality” and now think that it means they are the shot-callers.
As the senior unlicensed man in the Black Gang, it has now become one of my unofficial jobs to “say what the Chief wants said, but cannot, because he’s the Chief, say”.
Essentially, I’m enforcing the “Who the F**K do you think YOU are, punk?” meme…and then figuratively beating and kicking them to clue them in to where they are in the pecking order.
Teens and young people who do not have job skills cannot find jobs. First the jobs are not there, and second if the jobs are there then the competition is fierce between the underemployed, illegal imigrants, and everyone else who is looking for work. I am concerned about the lack of jobs and the next generation will not have a work ethic. We are raising a generation of young people who have no concept of what it means to work 40 hours a week. A full time job is rare. Most jobs are PRN (as needed) or at the most 20 hours a week. A job with benefits is almost unheard of. Young people do not see the value of working hard , because there is no pathway to better jobs. It is shameful that most health care workers do not have health benefits. It should be illegal to offer 2 part-time jobs instead of one full time job to avoid paying benefits.
At the risk of boring readers with a “when I was young” riff, I’ll note that I got my first summer job at age 16 washing dishes for 48 hours a week at the minimum wage of $1.60 an hour. It was rough, to say the least, but I took two very important things away from the experience: a) a healthy respect for those who do such jobs all year long (while not necessarily wanting to engage in such work for the rest of my life), and b) an appreciation of how difficult it is to keep a business operation working.
Well said. My first job was McDonald’s, at age 16, and I absolutely hated it. But I also met career McDonald’s managers (who were, to a person, balder, fatter, grayer and much older-looking than they should have been), which gave me a strong incentive to keep my nose to the grindstone so that I could grow up and not become like them.
Also, re the obvious problem of illegals taking what used to be teen jobs: In this economy, can anyone really say with a straight face that illegals do “the jobs Americans won’t do” anymore?
To Anonymous
“It should be illegal to offer 2 part-time jobs instead of one full time job to avoid paying benefits.”
You should not try to fix fascism with more fascism. I suggest you should stick with the original American way and reliberate your job markets.
Here in Europe we have hampered the job market for decades and the results are terrible. Few years back, in the midst of economic boom there was official jobless rate of 10% in many western Europen countries, however unofficial measures produce much higher rates. For example, in Sweden one Economist published his estimate of 25% for unemployment the official rate being 7% at the time. This guy was working for LO, a central body of Swedens labor unions. Not surprisingly, he was silenced after the ‘leak’.
I live in Baltimore a large and troubled old inner city and one of the obvious reasons why Black youth have trouble finding jobs aside from the already mentioned problems of upbringing,manners, education, work ethic and competition from more motivated illegal and legal hispanics is there just aren’t that many jobs in the inner cities being created that could be filled by a low skill black teenager. Manufacturing, construction and other small businesses are all either already gone from the inner city or leaving as fast as they can to escape the high property taxes, corruption, and over regulation. Most of the inner city Black politicans who aren’t corrupt are second generation liberal children of the old origional oligarchs and with their liberal arts educations and left wing ideologies have no clue the damage their policies are doing to the Black communities. Barack Obama and his total lack of real world experience or understanding is not the only clueless Black leader.