Posted on 04/11/2015 2:48:38 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter
Teenagers who work enjoy numerous benefits. As Ron Lieber argues in his new book, “The Opposite of Spoiled,” they learn how to appropriately handle bosses, co-workers, and money, and they might learn something about what they’re good at. Lieber’s message is timely, because working teenagers are rapidly disappearing.
Data from the Current Population Survey show that the share of 16- to 19-year-olds who were neither working nor looking for work each March has risen around 15 percent since the late 1990s. Part of that is due to lower demand for their labor, but the trend was strong even before the 2008 economic crash.
High-school-age teenagers who have jobs during the school year largely work part time. But few do anymore: In the late 1990s, 23 percent of 16-year-olds had a part-time job in March. In 2011 to 2013, just 9 percent did.
Teens from affluent families are more likely to work during the school year. Sixteen and 17-year-olds whose families earn more than $68,000 are 50 percent more likely to be working or looking for work than teens from families making less than $21,000. (For these comparisons, we subtracted the teen’s wages from family income.)
Recent high school graduates have experienced a similar decline in full-time work. Those ages 18 and 19 are about half as likely to work full time in March as 18- and 19-year-olds in the late 1990s.
The decline of work—especially full-time work—has continued through the college and early career years. The share of 30-year-olds neither working nor looking for work rose 23 percent over the period studied. There has been a slight rise in educational attainment, which explains some of the decline in work. But neither higher education nor higher unemployment rates can fully explain the trend away from young people working.
For teens and twentysomethings, skipping the labor market often results in permanently lower earnings. It may also deprive them of the opportunity to hector the next generation about not working hard enough.
Originally published in The Wall Street Journal
Bump for later.
I think it has to do with the activities the kids are in then anything else. You would not believe the back and forth my wife and I do carting 4 kids to various activities and sports. It is insane. Starting at 0530 for swimming (1 kid), diving (another kid), Lacrossse (2 kids), wrestling (1 kid), girl scouts (1 kid), basketball (1 kid), Confirmation practice (1 kid). Yes I have a 17 year old who I could not imagine having a job. There is no way to fit a job into a schedule today. Yes we have to pay the tab on all but my parents did for us. None of us had jobs either and we turned out great quite frankly.
A profound observation. Duh.
Kid jobs, HS and college, taken by illegals. The kids then do internships for free.
has to do with the activities the kids are in
No, there just aren’t that many entry level jobs in Obama’s economy. My daughter had a heck of a time finding one, but she finally did.
These jobs are reserved for illegals.
I started working as soon as I could, around 14 years old. Youth Rec Dept. McDonalds a short time, later. Then at my city Library as a page for several years, excellent job.
Kids are a much higher percent of the population now than they were during the small X generation. In my boomer generation with so many teenagers, one had to have some kind of political pull to land even a fastfood job.
My teenage jobs were all under-the-table affairs. I often worked for the high school shop teacher during the summer. He was a contractor and always had a couple of remodel or construction jobs going during the summer staffed by kids from school that did good work.
Worked on a cattle ranch for many years doing fencing and feeding and stacking hay.
My teen has several jobs lined up this summer riding/training other peoples’ horses. She’s quite talented at this and claims that her goal is to be a horse trainer. Her income from this will pay her entries to horse shows.
BINGO!
Thanks Mastador1
I mean how hard is that to figure out?
My FRiend sent this to me the other day via IMGUR. Kinda brought tears to my eyes for some reason.
Not hard especially if you worked in any of the fields that made up first time jobs for teens. First it was the parents who reduced the number of teens employed by giving them cash and cars when the economy was great, that opened the door for the illegals in a huge way and now those jobs are routinely filled by non English speaking employees that make it extremely uncomfortable for American, Englishing speaking teens, keeping them out.
I believe it.
The opposite is true.
Teenagers have never been a smaller portion of our population
Heck, we’re lucky out here if they can grasp enough English to take your order.
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