With one of the worst employment markets in decades, it’s no surprise that many teenagers looking for summer jobs aren’t find a lot of “help wanted” signs at the mall. While this may not seem like a big deal, an interesting article in the New York Times today — brought to my attention by Carpetbagger regular Chief Osceola — explains that few summer jobs for teens is a sign of bleak economic conditions.
As the article explains, the percentage of teens holding summer jobs is at its lowest point in 55 years — and it’s not for lack of desire.
“Governments have cut money that used to help put teenagers in jobs,” the Times article said. “Retail stores are increasingly favoring older sales clerks. And teenagers are suffering a kind of push-down effect of the bad economy: older workers are returning to the job market, the laid-off are settling for jobs they might once have thought beneath them and college students unable to find better work are hanging onto jobs that used to go to high school students, squeezing out the youngest workers.”
The Times also contrasts these economic conditions with the Clinton years, when employers were competing to hire qualified young people, and teens could hold out for the best offer.
Chief Osceola astutely noted that this is life in “W’s America” — teens (and too many of their parents) can’t find a job, they can’t get involved with service/volunteer programs like AmeriCorps because Bush has slashed the program’s budget, and they can’t take summer classes because the states are facing fiscal crises and can’t afford to keep schools open.
As of last month, the unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds was 19.3%, and like the national unemployment rate, this figure is rising particularly quickly for African American youths. Nevertheless, the job market (or lack thereof) is affecting every part of the country and every demographic group.
The Times highlighted the situation in Boston, as an example, where the youth jobs program has seen its budget cut by more than half while the city has had to cut all of the funds for a program that hired 14- and 15-year-old to clean city parks and streets.
As Tim McCarthy, the director of the Boston Youth Fund, said, “We’re closing firehouses and laying off policemen. It’s difficult to hire a kid when you’ve fired his father.”
Don’t worry, though. Bush has cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires to the point of recklessness, and while 3 million jobs have been lost since Bush took office, I’m sure that windfall will be trickling down to the rest of us any day now.