Thread: Forbes: Teen unemployment is now at highest rate since 1965

http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/02/teen-u ... labor.html

Economy
Teenage Jobs Wasteland


Joshua Zumbrun, 07.02.09, 03:45 PM EDT

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


WASHINGTON -- 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.") http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/02/jobs-u ... -jobs.html

"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 experienced workers. Your unskilled worker, like your teen, can end up in competition with experienced applicants."

The recovery following the dot-com bubble in 2001 is often called the "jobless recovery" because although the economy was growing, the labor market remained in bad shape. That meant more experienced workers crowded teens out of entry-level jobs throughout the decade, a trend that has accelerated because of recession.

But Lopez Eastlick says there is another major factor: rising minimum wage requirements. Minimum wage increases raise the bar for entry-level employment. From 1997 until 2007, the minimum wage stood at $5.15. Congress raised it to $5.85 in 2007, to $6.55 last year, and in July it is scheduled to increase again to $7.25.

In June 2006, 7 million teens were working. Since the wage hikes and recession kicked in, 1.4 million of those jobs have disappeared. For African-American teens, the job market is even worse--their unemployment rate is 38%.

"For teens who are not in the work force, as many as 10 years later there are financial impacts to that. Ten years later, if you were not employed, you're lagging behind your peers," says Lopez Eastlick. "There's an invisible curriculum you learn from having a job."

For many teens, that curriculum will have to wait for summers when the recession is long gone.
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COMMENTS

Comments for Comments 1-7 of 7
Teenage Jobs Wasteland
Joshua Zumbrun
Not since 1965 has it been so hard for teens to get work.

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Posted by USAmerican | 07/03/09 03:59 PM EDT
Why is Forbes even worried about teen unemployement, after all they have helped to create this situation by supporting illegal aliens taking jobs from Americans. Bunch of damn traitors is what Forbes is.
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Posted by 24AheadDotCom | 07/03/09 12:05 PM EDT
Oddly enough, Joshua Zumbrun completely failed to discuss the role that a huge number of illegal aliens play in high teen unemployment, despite there being people who study that very topic (search for Andrew Sum).

If anyone would like to actually do something about this, organize efforts to have someone go ask a political leader about these issues. Here's one question concerning the stimulus and illegal aliens taking jobs from Americans:

http://tinyurl.com/cjk6vk
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Posted by Tom_in_GA | 07/03/09 11:57 AM EDT
To Hugster: Can't be done because of discrimination laws - would immediately be tossed by the Supremes. I sympathize with how difficult it is to live on minimum wage but businesses cannot pay people more than they are worth. A company paying $7 an hour for work that is really worth $4 an hour won't stay in business.

To waynecr: Congratulations to your kids. I am a two-year college professor in Georgia and I hear plenty of stories from my students about the poor job market. For many individuals under 25, the hours they need are not there.
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Posted by peterike | 07/03/09 11:34 AM EDT
The latest June employment report actually has African-American teen unemployment at 45%.

Another element not discussed is the number of entry level jobs held by illegals. There are still millions and millions of illegals taking jobs that could easily go to American teens, not to mention out of work American adults.
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Posted by politicalcalcs | 07/03/09 11:13 AM EDT
The employment numbers are off in the article. Jobs held by teens did indeed peak in June 2006, but at 6,244,000 (not 7 million). The number of jobs held by those Age 16-19 has declined by nearly 1.25 million (not 1.4 million) since then to just under 5 million (4,999,000) as of June 2009. [ Ref: http://bit.ly/z6Mr9 ] If it helps though, the combination of minimum wage hikes and the current recession are indeed responsible for the loss of teen jobs. Interestingly, all of the teen job loss in 2007 may be attributed to the minimum wage hike of that year. [ Ref: http://bit.ly/wrpVW - note, this is the last post of a fun series of posts investigating the topic. ]
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Posted by Hugster | 07/02/09 11:44 PM EDT
Maybe we could have a slightly lower (5-10%) minimum wage for persons under 21. Try living on the minimum wage for a year (or even a month) and then try to make an argument against raising it.
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It's absolutely disgusting the way Forbes completely ignores the illegal immigration issue aspect of the high uneployment rate for teenagers. Most part-time jobs in the fast food industry used to be held by teenagers, but that simply isn't the case these days because illegals are taking many of those jobs. It used to be the same thing for yard work. However, in recent years the landscaping industry has exploded with new businesses because of the accessibility to illegal (cheap) labor. I've only offered a couple examples, I'm sure there are others.

No surprise that teen unemployment is at an all time high! Many of the jobs that teenagers at one time utilized to earn money, many to support their quest for higher education, are now performed by ILLEGALS often supplied by "subcontractors" in business for the explicit purpose of furnishing "cheap labor" allowing the primary contractors to claim ignorance of any violation of U.S. Immigration Laws.

I worked from the time I was 12 thru college at various jobs that are no longer available to Teenagers who are United States Citizens; mowed lawns (many of these jobs now given to ILLEGALS by ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS), cleared land for housing (again jobs now given to ILLEGALS by ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS), dug ditches and laid pipe for city water lines (yet again jobs now given to ILLEGALS by ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS), worked turnarounds at refineries during the summers (as you may have guest by now, jobs now given to ILLEGALS by ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS), stocked groceries overnight (you know, again jobs now given to ILLEGALS by ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS), and etc. Maybe our Government should subsidize teenagers and U.S. Citizens Students for the lost opportunity to earn money for education or daily living that the ILLEGALS and their ILLEGAL EMPLOYEES have stolen, but of course the education would not be as valuable if it was just another HANDOUT as the ILLEGALS and their Anchors believe they are entitled.

Iccat wrote:
No surprise that teen unemployment is at an all time high! Many of the jobs that teenagers at one time utilized to earn money, many to support their quest for higher education, are now performed by ILLEGALS often supplied by "subcontractors" in business for the explicit purpose of furnishing "cheap labor" allowing the primary contractors to claim ignorance of any violation of U.S. Immigration Laws.

I worked from the time I was 12 thru college at various jobs that are no longer available to Teenagers who are United States Citizens; mowed lawns (many of these jobs now given to ILLEGALS by ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS), cleared land for housing (again jobs now given to ILLEGALS by ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS), dug ditches and laid pipe for city water lines (yet again jobs now given to ILLEGALS by ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS), worked turnarounds at refineries during the summers (as you may have guest by now, jobs now given to ILLEGALS by ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS), stocked groceries overnight (you know, again jobs now given to ILLEGALS by ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS), and etc. Maybe our Government should subsidize teenagers and U.S. Citizens Students for the lost opportunity to earn money for education or daily living that the ILLEGALS and their ILLEGAL EMPLOYEES have stolen, but of course the education would not be as valuable if it was just another HANDOUT as the ILLEGALS and their Anchors believe they are entitled.
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So true....so true!! Recently, on one of the rare times I take my car to a carwash, aside from the youthful greeters who took my service order, EVERYONE else working there looked OVER 30 years old. It is very, very rare that you find teens working at many fast food places these days because of all the spanish speakers there. But I will give it to a local Chick-Fil-A. The manager was the oldest looking person there. The counter help, drive through, and even the person mopping the floor appeared to be all teens and young 20 somethings. They were ALL friendly and SPOKE ENGLISH!! Not just to me, but each other as well. Quite a pleasant and nice suprise.

Quoting AngrTX - "But I will give it to a local Chick-Fil-A. The manager was the oldest looking person there. The counter help, drive through, and even the person mopping the floor appeared to be all teens and young 20 somethings. They were ALL friendly and SPOKE ENGLISH!! Not just to me, but each other as well. Quite a pleasant and nice suprise."

Good observation, we have visited four different more than once each, Chick-Fil-A's over the last several months and what you stated seems to be true and could this be a concerted effort by a United States company.