The End of the Summer Job?
“Ice cream still needs scooping, beaches still need guarding, and campers still need counseling,” said Patricia Cohen and Ron Lieber in The New York Times. So where are all the teenage workers? Since 2000, the share of 16-to-19-yearolds who are working has plummeted by 40 percent. Just 32 percent of American teenagers held a job last summer, compared with 58 per cent in 1978. It isn’t that teens are just sitting around. More students than ever are attending summer school and cramming for high-stakes standardized tests. Others are “buffing college applications” with internships, community service, and foreign travel. Summer breaks are also shorter. And for the 1.1 million teens who would like a job but can’t find one, the “sluggish recovery” means competing with struggling adults for a declining number of entry-level jobs.
“The decline of the Great American Summer Job is a shame,” said Bill Sternberg in USA Today. The “grimy, unglamorous, and low-paying” job at a soda-bottling plant I took one summer in my teens “taught me more about life and work than anything else I could have done during those three months.” I learned about monotony and about responsibility, and grew to respect my hardworking, year-round co-workers. “If it’s motivation and real-world preparation” teens are after, they should do what they can to get a job. “The grungier the better.”
Fear not, “the summer job isn’t dead,” said Justin Fox in BloombergView.com. The percentage of 16-to-24-year-olds with summer jobs has actually increased slightly since the end of the recession, though it’s too early to tell if that’s a “heartening trend or just a cyclical rebound.” Another bright spot: The amusement, gambling, and recreation sectors, which often employ teens, added 190,100 jobs in June. These places don’t offer particularly well-paying jobs, but they do create “crucial opportunities for younger workers.”
Even now, “it’s not too late” for teens to get that summer job, said Janet Bodnar in Kiplinger.com. Because hiring younger workers means high turnover, many retailers, restaurants, and amusement parks hire throughout the summer. Teens can also look for opportunities to sub for workers on vacation. Working doesn’t just put money in your teen’s pocket; it also gives him or her a golden opportunity to learn about finances, like the fact that even 15-year-olds have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes. If a young worker is lucky enough to snag a gig, get him a savings account and encourage him to set up automatic contributions. He’ll even be eligible to save for retirement in a Roth IRA. If he feels it’s too early for that kind of saving, tell him about the wonders of compound interest. And then chip in a few bucks.
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