Thread: CA-Study: Migrants compete with teens for work

Study: Migrants compete with teens for work
Stephen Wall
Posted: 05/12/2010 03:41:28 PM PDT


Kevin Cole wouldn't mind working at a clothing or skateboard shop or even a movie theater.
The Redlands High School sophomore would take a job at a hamburger joint - if it's In-N-Out Burger.

"I'd rather work at In-N-Out," said Kevin, a 16-year-old who hasn't had a job before. "They pay pretty good."

While he has his preferences, Kevin knows he can't be too picky when it comes to summer employment.

"I have no doubt there's a lot of competition," he said while walking home from school on Wednesday. "There's not a lot of people hiring."

The job situation for young workers has been grim for some time and isn't expected to get better anytime soon.

Nationally, the April unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds was 25.4percent, compared with 9.9percent for the population as a whole.

A study released Wednesday finds that American teens started leaving the labor force long before the onset of the recession.

Competition with immigrants accounts for a significant share of the decline in teen employment, according to the report from the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based organization that supports reduced immigration.

Researchers at the center say legal and illegal immigrants are crowding out U.S.-born teens in the labor market.

Immigrants displace American teens from jobs because they are older and tend to have more job experience, the study says.

"It's a worrisome trend," said Steven Camarota, the center's director of research and lead author of the report. "If you don't work as a teenager, it often becomes hard to start working in your 20s, especially if you don't go on to college.
"We may be creating a situation where idleness and non-work become increasingly normal among 20-something, less educated people."

In 1994, nearly two-thirds of American teens were in the summer labor force, meaning they were either working or looking for work. By 2007, it was less than half.

At the same time, the overall number of legal and illegal immigrants holding a job doubled, the study says.

On average, a 10-percentage-point increase in the immigrant share of a state's work force reduced the labor force participation of American teens by nearly 8 percent, the study found.

In California, immigration lowered labor force participation among American teens from 46 percent in 1994 to 40 percent in 2007, Camarota said.

The study found that in occupations where teen employment declined the most, immigrants made significant job gains. The jobs included food counter attendants, cashiers, cooks and stock handlers.

"Large-scale unskilled immigration has a cost here," Camarota said. "It's not just the fiscal cost everyone is concerned about. There could be a cost in affecting the life prospects of American kids, especially those who don't go to college."

Others disagree with the view that immigrants are taking jobs from American teens.

"Nobody is getting a good deal. Everybody is suffering through this (recession)," said Brad Kemp, director of regional research for Beacon Economics, a consulting firm with offices in Los Angeles and San Rafael.

Kemp said undocumented workers were the first to be laid off from construction jobs when the economic downturn hit.

"Immigrants can't find jobs either," Kemp said. "I don't understand why people make them a scapegoat."

Todd Sorensen, assistant professor of economics at UC Riverside, also has problems with the study. He said it's clear there is a correlation between declines in teenage labor force participation and the percentage of immigrants in an area. But he said it's hard to prove that immigrants are pushing teens out of the labor market.

"It's very possible that immigrants are simply moving to the places where teen employment is the lowest," Sorensen said.

Sorensen said it is interesting that the study didn't find a sharper decline in labor force participation among Latinos born in this country.

"I would expect if there was a big impact of immigration on labor force participation, one would find native Hispanics would be the most impacted," he said.

In fact, the study found the decline in employment was similar for black, Latino and white teens. It also occurred in low-income as well as high-income households, the study says.

"It's true for all segments of society," Camarota said.

Adrian Pantoja, associate professor of political studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, agreed that immigration has some impact on the teenage labor market. But he said it's tough to tell how much of an impact because the study didn't consider other factors that might explain why teens aren't working as much.

Teens might be performing community service as a requirement to get into college instead of working. Also, parents today may not want their kids working in a fast-food restaurant because they believe it's a dangerous job, he said.

"Yes, immigration does have an impact, but there are other things that could be going on that we need to consider," Pantoja said. "The data may not capture some of the cultural changes that are happening."

Juan Guerra, a 17-year-old senior at Arroyo Valley High School in San Bernardino, wouldn't mind working in a fast-food restaurant or doing landscaping to earn a few bucks this summer.

"It's important," Juan said, "because I need to save up money for college."



http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_15071907

Not too long ago I read another article concerning the high rate of unemployment among U.S. teenagers and now the Elitists want to give Blanket Amnesty to the ILLEGALS and leave the number of various visas such as the “H-1Bâ€

When Congresswoman Barbara Jordan examined the effect of temporary workers, she learned about two problems: The lack of political will to send people back to their home countries and locals associating certain jobs with temp workers - and thus beneath consideration. So it was a vicious circle. People were brought it on a temporary basis, not sent home, and locals stopped applying for those jobs. This may account for the evenness of the decline in participation across economic categories. That said, in today's economic climate Americans do appear to be ready to take any job that's available. When Ranch Market in Phoenix had to dismiss illegals, hundreds of people applied for those jobs the very next day.

lccat, in inner city neighborhoods we did exactly the same thing. Working while in school was considered normal - and we weren't fussy, either. Those entry level jobs were also handy as stop gaps for adults, when something else wasn't available. Now employers can get desparate, docile illegals on a full time basis, so no need to employ Americans. That's good news for employers, but bad news for everybody else. The working class and the structually unemployed are particularly hard hit.

Not only is there little policial will for sending people back, Obama actually instructed Senators Graham and Schumer to include getting a supply of unskilled labor into their immigration "reform" package.

Bush and Obama are like the two peas in a pod on the ILLEGAL Immigration issue. Both are afraid there is a vote that may be lost or a Political Contribution that also could be lost from a Special Interest Group that benefits from the ILLEGALS.

The Mexicans have completely yaken over construction jobs in the Houston area. Painters, tile layers, carpet installers, brick layers, cabinet makers. All these jobs once belonged to legal workers. Black, brown, and white skilled construction workers have been forced out.
The Mexicans don't pay for health insurance, car insurance, or taxes like legal citizens must do. They refuse to speak English on the job, so the outnumbered English speaking workers leave. No one wants to have to work with people they can not communicate with.
Many builders have allowed home building quality to suffer for quicker completions. There is not much pride in a job well done anymore.
Not only young people, but older skilled construction people have had to change careers to survive. The only reason they have not taken electricians jobs is because you must have a state license to do electrical work here.