Tough job market drives teens to alternatives

Eve Tahmincioglu • Profile • E-mail

With the economy in the dumps this past year, you’d think the nation’s teens would be falling all over themselves to get jobs this summer. Well, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' most recent data shows a continued decline in the number of teens participating in the job market. In April, 38.1 percent of teens ages 16 to 19 were in the labor force, down from 41 percent in the same month last year.

“Over the year, the number of teens not in the labor force rose from 10,063,000 to 10,575,000,” says labor department analyst James Walker.

So is it just lazy teens coddled by their parents who, despite a recession, still won’t get off their butts and go out and do an honest day's work?

There may be some of that. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. Some are bypassing paying jobs to volunteer. Others are starting their own businesses. And still others are creating their own work arrangements, such as babysitting for family members.

There seems to be more to life than a minimum-wage job at a mall or resort.

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Take Kira Goldsmith, 15, of Ossining, N.Y. She figured there would be many adults desperate for work this summer, so she decided to not even bother applying for a paying job. But that doesn’t mean she won’t be working.

She’ll be volunteering in July at the Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, N.Y., where she’ll be cleaning barns and feeding animals. She also has plans to volunteer at an animal shelter and a center for disadvantaged kids.

“I looked in the Penny Saver for jobs, but I thought there are people who needed jobs more than me,” she says. “I thought volunteering is more worthwhile than getting paid for something.”

Work alternatives
Tyler Paaverud, 18, also won’t show up in workforce participation numbers.

Paaverud, who lives in Shakopee, Minn., started his own landscaping business last summer called Valley Yard Services because he didn’t want to work a minimum wage job like many of his friends. He estimates he now makes about $22 an hour. He also employs his twin 17-year-old sisters and some of his buddies.

“My sisters and I were in the same boat,” he says. “We didn’t go out and look for a job because of how much work you have to do only to get a few dollar bills at the end of the day.”

It’s not surprising that teens are looking to a variety of work alternatives given how they’re typically treated by employers, says Harry Holzer, a professor at Georgetown University and former economist for the Department of Labor.

“Young people are the most marginal workers in the labor force, the first to be let go and the last to be hired,” he says. “If they think the odds aren’t good for getting a job, they may not try. Upper-income kids may think enrichment opportunities, where low-income teens may just get discouraged and not bother at all.”

For teens, venturing out to find a job right now may be daunting. The jobless rate among the 16-to-19 crowd jumped to 21.5 percent in April, up from 15.4 percent in April 2008.

Simone Thompson, director of operations at Covenant House New York, which helps homeless youth gain independence and employment, says it is taking teens four months or so to find jobs right now, where it used to take less than a month. “The kids want to work, but they’re having trouble finding work,” she says. “Our major issue is they are not getting full-time employment or are seeing their hours cut back.”

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