Teens Face Bleak Outlook for Summer Jobs

(CBS)  This story was written by Jay Dow of CBS News Station WCBS-TV in New York.

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At a time of near double-digit unemployment in the United States, the job prospects for teenagers who want to work are even worse. One recent study from Northeastern University finds that only a quarter of teenagers aged 16 to 19 are landing jobs, down from half of all teens a decade ago.

With the Memorial Day holiday next weekend, the seasonal outlook for summer jobs is anything but sunny. If practice makes perfect, then Eudese Wilans will be ready for that big summer job interview.

"I can handle three things at once, maybe four things at once," Wilans said during a mock job interview.

Wilans is being trained on the "do's and don'ts" of job interviews by the Boston-based community development organization Action for Boston Community Development, or ABCD. She is one of a thousand teens who are all but guaranteed a job, chosen by lottery from 7,000 applicants.

"To work in a day care, to work in a school, to work in a summer camp would be my ideal job," Wilans said.

"We need to invest in these youngsters right now," said John Drew, president and CEO of ABCD. "They're our next generation. It will be woe on us if we do not step up to the plate."

The sad fact is Wilans may be one of the few lucky ones.

In 2000, 45.2 percent of the country's teenagers had jobs. That rate has fallen to just 26.2 percent now, the lowest since the end of World War II.

The summer jobs outlook is just as bleak. Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies predicts that 28 percent of teens will find a summer job this year.

"The magnitude of these declines are pervasive," said Andrew Sum, the center's director. "They've affected every gender group, every race-ethnic group, every family group across the country."

Sum says teens who cannot find a job may also struggle to find work in their 20's.

"We are denying them an opportunity to acquire these skills that employers value very highly," Sum said.

In Brooklyn, N.Y., with the help of a local jobs program, Robert Cirino and Zaire Williams learned basic job skills, including how to present themselves in public.

"Me being the exception, I'm just happy I got my job," Cirino said.

In just a few weeks, both teens will be working as ride operators on the famous Coney Island Boardwalk.

"I'm just real optimistic about the whole thing," said Williams. "I feel great about it."

In Boston, ABCD chief Drew says he can do better with more federal funds.

"What we need is help from Congress at this point to be able to get the money to get the kids off the streets," Drew said.

Next week Congress is expected to vote on $1 billion in funding to create an additional 350,000 teen jobs nationwide. That sounds like a lot, but an estimated 3 to 4 million teens will still be unable to find jobs this summer.

[ksmit2]

We cannot blame this one on illegal aliens. The percentage of teens
really willing to work at the jobs that are most available, food
service, etc. are a very small number. Our relative prosperity as
a society has taught them that certain jobs are "beneath" their
status to the point where we have thirty year olds living at home
with mom and dad because "there just isn't anything out there".
A popular fast food chain in Laffayette La in recent years has hired
employees from as far away as Romania to be flown here and trained
because no one locally wanted the jobs.
The situation isn't helped by the fact that young persons have been
taught over the years that they must be assisted or accomodated in
some way and that teachers and superiors must treat them as peers.

[wyodutch]

Bring in more illegals from Mexico... that's the answer.

[maiingan]

It's really the adults this country needs to "get off the streets" and into adequate employment. If the teens are the "future" but all the country does when the "future" is of adult age is to tell people to hang out or go back to school until the economy improves, the education and talents of millions are being wasted. The "future" is in your face, Uncle Same, and tens of millions of adults are being squandered as economic contributors.

[formrusmcsgt]

Facing Chance that 1 in 4 Teenagers Will Find Jobs This Summer
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Considering the general laziness of teens these days, there'll be unfilled jobs, surely.

[tmittelstaed]

"..."To work in a day care, to work in a school, to work in a summer camp would be my ideal job," Wilans said...."

Wow. Here she is not even graduated with a High School diploma yet, to say nothing of a college degree, and she figures she can pick and choose the job she wants. Typical teenager.

When I was a teen I took -anything-. I ended up in fast food, at McDonalds as a matter of fact - because those kinds of jobs were the only ones open to teenagers. And the fact is that the training I got there as far as getting the work ethic ingrained really helped. Every last one of us teens was proud to work there. We considered it a challenge to get the burgers served up asap. In fact at our restaurant us teens specialized in "window hangers" that was the term we used for running the McDonalds Drive Through. Our store had 2 windows in DT, the first was where they took the money the second a little further down was where they got the food. A "window hangar" was a crew that was so fast that we had the order ready when the customer pulled up to the second window - and we were hanging it out the window so the customer could simply pick it up without slowing down.

Today it sickens me to even walk into a McDonalds. The crew is either all illegals, or they are some of the most beaten-down-looking people you can imagine. Service is slow as molassass, portions are small (a large fry is supposed to have fries cascading out of the top) and the people handing you the food all have expressions like they wish they were somewhere else. Yet, today most McDonalds workers don't have to deal with drinks anymore, and they don't have "the bin" anymore, so food wastage is down to nothing, and you don't have to have a skilled "bin caller" who has a sixth sense on keeping the food in the bin. The job is a lot easier than it used to be, it pays a lot more - but the workers mostly suck.

In my opinion it's been a long time now that the teens have gotten used to turning up their noses at what they regard as "low class" jobs. They all now figure they be a junior in high school and pull $40K a year as an office manager or something like that. So the employers running fast food restaurants and all of that can't find anyone decent to work for them anymore so they hire illegal aliens.

Well, from the looks of it, last year and this year isn't going to be any more difficult for the teens than it was back in the 80's when I was working as a teen. Thank God. People who never work any of the s. h. i. t. jobs in life grow up as some of the worst attitude employees you can imagine. If teens work at all they need to be working the scummy jobs, and be proud of doing them, like we were. But frankly most teens need to be taking the hard classes and studying not working.

[ppaulville]

Yet another reason to deport all illegal aliens. When I was a teenager in Washington, I could choose my summer job from picking berries, working fast food, on a farm or on a fishing boat, at a car wash or in non-union construction, among others. Every one of those options no longer exists because those jobs go to illegal aliens. When one person starts using illegals, the race to the bottom begins, which, by the way, has a finish line that will never again include unskilled Americans or teenagers until every alien is deported.

[theywerestrongandgood]

Last summer, about 20 adults, mostly men, with homes and families to support were laid off because of the teen jobs program, and the few remaining experienced workers had to take up the slack since the teens did not have a clue what they were doing. There are always unintended consequences when the government gets involved.