Teenage Jobs Wasteland

Forbes ^ | 7/2/2009 | Joshua Zumbrun

[bruinbirdman]

Not since 1965 has it been so hard for teens to get work.

Think an unemployment rate of 9.5% is bad? It could be worse. You could be a teenager.

For teenagers, the summer job market has not been so bleak in generations. During what should be the start of the bustling summer job season, the unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds who want work is 24%--the worst since 1965.

The outlook for teen jobs is so bleak that it's weighing down the entire employment report, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Thursday. The country is headed for an entire decade with no job growth. In June, the report showed unemployment climbed to 9.6% from 9.5%, and 467,000 jobs were lost, thanks in large part to the decline in jobs for teens. (See "The Job Market's Grim Picture.")

"The biggest problem [in the report] was that the summer job market for teenagers was nonexistent," says Joel Naroff, of Naroff Economic Advisors, in a note. "The 24% unemployment rate for this group was the second-highest since the end of World War II. While teenagers comprise only 4% of the workforce, they made up over 22% of the increase in unemployment in June."

In June, there were 5.6 million jobs for teenagers, down from 6.3 million a year ago, and nowhere near the level of the late 1990s, the golden age for teen employment. In July of 1999, there were a record 8.8 million working teens.

"The economy has, of course, been bad for the restaurants and retail stores in which many teens work, but more is at play," says Kristen Lopez Eastlick, senior research analyst for the Employment Policies Institute. "The general unemployment rate is so much higher that your hiring market is going to be represented with more

[MARTIAL MONK]

Teenage unemployment should be 75%. There are fewer and fewer of them that have the capacity or desire to do a job. I made a conscious decision about a decade ago that I would not own a business where I would have to depend on a teenage workforce and I am very much happier for it.

My friends who do have such employees live in abject terror and it's not of the government or taxes or Islamic nutcases. It is a terror that that one or more of their pimply-faces employees is going to do something incredibly stupid or irresponsible. They are going to quit or "call off" just when they are needed most. They are going to steal their employers blind. They are going to do a favor for their "frenz" that jeopardizes the business. They are gong to ruin a hard won reputation for a "joke" like pissing in someone's coffee or crapping in someones beans.

Yesterday, I was driving past a friends business and noticed a gate open after hours. The gate opens onto a rough neighborhood. Thinking that it was accidental, I stopped at the office and found out that the lone clerk on late duty had opened it so his buddies could use some equipment and forgotten about it. I think my little pep talk left an impression.

[dragnet2]

When the citizens of a state vote for Dimocratz, they get Dimocratz policies. If you don’t like the policies, you know what you have to do.

What would that be?

[bruinbirdman]

"Teens have normally climbed the ladder from the bottom up. But those jobs are now taken largely by illegals."

One thing I noticed at our local supermarket this summer, it is the one large, visible employer in town, is that they started the season with just about equal numbers of male and female high school students. Now the only ones left are female.

yitbos

[dragnet2]

Bush didn’t have a love affair with illegals

BS...He not only aided and abetted this violent invasion for 8 years, he publicly encouraged it while calling Americans that had a belly full, "vigilantes".

Ya think everyone forgot about his 8 years in office?

During the Bush years, millions of illegals were so damn embolden by his administration, they marched on our cities and towns by the *millions* making threats and demands, while pushing foreign flags in your faces..

[Marie2]

I think they are hiring folks like you as opposed to largely untested teens. In the 90s you probably wouldn’t have applied for a job in a gelato shop?

[max americana]

i just came from Universal Studios this afternoon and most of the “teen’ traditional jobs are now held by 30-ish people.

[ican'tbelieveit]

My teenage son has been applying for jobs for over a year now. Nothing. I agree with the poster that replied to you with the point that the jobs he would normally get are going to unemployed adults vs teens with no job history.

[Pelham]

Yeah, right. That’s why Bush prattled on about “Family Values Don’t Stop at the Rio Grande”, “Jobs Americans Won’t Do”, and “Comprehensive Immigration Reform”. Not to mention dropping workplace enforcement below even the pathetic level that Clinton maintained.

And there was that small thing of pushing for amnesty for the millions of illegals here, who somehow just can’t ever be deported. I guess enforcing our laws was one of those Jobs Americans Won’t Do, at least when it comes to Hispandering presidents.

But then maybe that’s just the Bush of my imagination. The Real Dubya must have been a fierce warrior for immigration enforcement, and none of us in California noticed it.

[DBrow]

The newspaper delivery is now done by adults in cars, not kids on bikes.

[autumnraine]

I didn’t realize it had bumped up to 9.6.

[Pelham]

That’s certainly the way I remember his administration. It is no mystery why California is collapsing. Americans have been fleeing as illegals flood in.

I’ve lived in California long enough to watch it go from American dream to multicultural nightmare. If you like gangs and graffiti and English-optional then maybe you won’t care, but otherwise it’s a damned shame. And it only happens because politicians encourage it and refuse to enforce our laws. Some people call it treason to put the interests of foreign nationals ahead of your own people.

[tflabo]

I remember when delivering newspapers as a kid. Back then (in the late 60’s era for me) newspapers were delivered in the afternoon after school. I bought albums, clothes and other stuff...Wasn’t a lot of money but enough for spending
and prices were not so outrageous on items like today!

[Rembrandt]

‘Bush didn’t have a love affair with illegals
BS...He not only aided and abetted this violent invasion for 8 years, he publicly encouraged it while calling Americans that had a belly full, “vigilantes”.

Ya think everyone forgot about his 8 years in office?

During the Bush years, millions of illegals were so damn embolden by his administration, they marched on our cities and towns by the *millions* making threats and demands, while pushing foreign flags in your faces.. ‘

---

Your solution, Pelham? Elect Obama. Right? How’s the HOPE and CHANGE working out for you?

[Rembrandt]

‘Bush didn’t have a love affair with illegals
BS...He not only aided and abetted this violent invasion for 8 years, he publicly encouraged it while calling Americans that had a belly full, “vigilantes”.

Ya think everyone forgot about his 8 years in office?

During the Bush years, millions of illegals were so damn embolden by his administration, they marched on our cities and towns by the *millions* making threats and demands, while pushing foreign flags in your faces.. ‘
—
And Dragnet2 favors changing the system to a peaceful, kumbaya, system where love just overflows. Hey, Dragnet2, how’s it working out so far for you and your love child, the Bamster?

[tflabo]

Other than post 9-11 and the very last months the Bush years were fairly good for employment and the economy did OK. He could have done better by not spending so much
and agreeing to that behemoth TARP 1 package that schmuck Henry Paulson foisted on all of us!

[TigersEye]

Bush didn’t have a love affair with illegals, ...

What?

[Elsiejay]

Government has no authority, absent a declared national emergency, to set the price of labor in entry-level jobs; i.e., the minimum wage. If the market was allowed to set the price of entry-level labor, it might be easier for no-job-experience youth to find gainful employment.

But, sadly, the prnciple of government constrained by a written constitution has long been abandoned, declared null and of no effect.

[raybbr]

Maybe didn't love illegals as much as he loved their culture. He wanted a "new America" and honestly if it weren't for 9-11 he might have had it.

We are now one of the largest Spanish-speaking nations in the world. We're a major source of Latin music, journalism and culture.

Just go to Miami, or San Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago or West New York, New Jersey ... and close your eyes and listen. You could just as easily be in Santo Domingo or Santiago, or San Miguel de Allende.

For years our nation has debated this change -- some have praised it and others have resented it. By nominating me, my party has made a choice to welcome the new America.

Our future cannot be separated from the future of Latin America.

As I speak, we are celebrating the success of democracy in Mexico.

George Bush from a campaign speech in Miami, August 2000.

You can read the speech here.

Here is an excerpt of a good critique of that speech:

In equating our intimate historic bonds to our mother country and to Canada with our ties to Mexico, W. shows a staggering ignorance of the civilizational facts of life. The reason we are so close to Britain and Canada is that we share with them a common historical culture, language, literature, and legal system, as well as similar standards of behavior, expectations of public officials, and so on. My Bush Epiphany By Lawrence Auster

[Pelham]

Yes, that’s classic Jorge Arbusto. I was worried that he was bad news back in 2000 because this sort of crap was in his speeches. He lived down to my low expectations.

[John Will]

I’m sure the Pacific northwest is looking good to the Californians right about now. The only place I really care about in CA is Silicon valley, looks that has the viability of Detroit long term.