Far Fewer Summer Jobs for Teens
Christian Science Monitor: This summer is shaping up as a tough one for many of America’s youngest job seekers.
Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies, which Professor Sum heads, predicted in April that just 36.5 percent of teens will have jobs this summer, down from 37.4 percent last year and 45.3 percent in 2000. Those numbers are seasonally adjusted, smoothing out differences between summer and school-year employment, so they are lower than unadjusted summer numbers. What’s significant, and surprising, is the direction of the forecast.
“Extraordinarily weak,” given that it comes after four years of solid economic growth, Sum says.
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.
Should add these reasons:
- Kids cannot be distracted from Playstation video games
- Parents do not make their children work…instead, they purchase BMWs for them to drive to local malls
- Spoiled kids are irresponsible thus employers have replaced them with workers willing to actually work
Bart
You make my point Bart you would insult American kids just to get illegal cheap labor!
What will we do with the “illegal” workers if we make them legal and then we enter a recession. Will they go on unemployment then?
What is the status of a laid-off guest worker? I am asking because I don’t know. Are guest workers entitled to benefits or are they supposed to go back home if there is no job. What does this bill change, if anything to current guest worker laws?
The list of points in the original post seems contradictory on the points about education. Too much or too little?
Bart
Do you hate Americans? Why do you blame Americans first?
No John, I loathe anti-Americans who join with people like Ron Paul to blame America for days like 9/11 where over 3000 innocent people were killed by islamic terrorists.
Bart
All I know is you put down American kids, the military. CIA….
John, you know nothing but hyperbole and misrepresentation of what others write.
#1 Read you first comment!
Did you put down the CIA many times?
Did you not put down Airport security and border agents?
Did you not put down the military helping at the border?
What am I missing?
#1 comment was truthful in many cases John. My generation had to work to buy a car, today many if not most kids expect it as a right of passage.
No, I put down a single report and George Tenet.
Yes, airport security is a joke.
No to border agents.
No, I linked a story about three Nat’l Guardsman getting busted for smuggling illegals to point out the human factor will not be overcome. We need to utilize modern day technologies to secure the border.
What are you missing? — not enough room here to discuss.