According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment rate for teens age 16 to 19 dropped from 35 percent in 2008, to 26 percent in 2009 and will continue to go down. The teen unemployment rate is the highest it’s been since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began measuring it in 1948.
MHS, with a student body around 2,500, continues to struggle with this.
“We rarely get job postings anymore,” Fran Kremer, guidance counselor, said. “A Few years ago, we would get four per week. We still get some from places like Six Flags, but not as much as we used to at all.”
Teen employment numbers peaked at 6,241,000 in November 2006. That number has since fallen by 1,980,000, or 31.7% of the 2006 figure.
“There are just so many people looking for work,” Kremer said. “The kids are up against older adults with college degrees and much more experience.”
The effect this situation has on students tends to be one of attitude.
“The kids are very discouraged,” Kremer said. “There are so many who have applied but couldn’t get anything.”
The situation isn’t gloomy for all students.
“It was fairly easy for me to find a job over the summer,” Taylor Shelton, sophomore, said.
Shelton, who does odd jobs at his family’s company, Gerstner Electric, started over the summer for a quarter over minimum wage.
“I understand how it may be difficult for students to find jobs in this economy, but I have not felt it,” Shelton said. “I get paid well to do a job that I like. Everything’s worked out for me.”
