|
Frustrated teens frozen out of unseasonably chilly job market
(Record, The (Hackensack, NJ) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jun. 15--Sam Melendez and Shraddha Anandpara have much in common.
Both are high school seniors with strong academic and extracurricular records. Both have acceptance letters from prestigious universities.
And both have been shut out in their search for summer jobs.
"It's been really, really hard," Anandpara said. The 18-year-old from Bergenfield is 0-for-10 in searching for a job that will ease her financial load when she begins her collegiate career at New York University in the fall.
"It's extremely frustrating," said Anandpara, a senior at the Academies@Englewood.
"You fill out an application and they tell you the supervisor will call you, but you never get a callback," she said. "When you call, the supervisor is never there."
Melendez, a Teaneck High School senior who is headed for Penn State in September, tells a similar story after going 0-for-7 in his job hunt.
As with Anandpara, he has been looking for a retail job at one of the region's shopping centers.
"One said I didn't have the experience," he said. "The others I applied to haven't gotten back to me. I'm assuming the worst."
Melendez and Anandpara have discovered firsthand what economists are saying. With little or no economic growth, widespread layoffs in financial services industries, and limited or no hiring at restaurants and retail stores, this could be the worst summer for teenage job-seekers in 60 years.
"There are simply just not enough jobs available to satisfy the flood of students that are in need of summer income," David Rosenberg, chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch & Co., said in a note to clients.
He was responding to the monthly report released a week ago by the U.S. Department of Labor saying that the unemployment rate among 16- to 19-year-olds had jumped from 15.4 percent in April to 18.7 percent in May. That accounted for a big chunk of the sharp increase in the nation's overall unemployment rate to 5.5 percent.
Simply put, demand is high, with more students required to earn their own money for the fall, but supply is low, as companies have cut back sharply on their summertime hirings, Rosenberg said.
"The number of teens actively looking for both part-time and full-time summer jobs rose in May at a rate not seen since the very weak economic period of 1992," he said.
The result is a jobless rate for 18- and 19-year-olds that soared to 17.5 percent from 13.2 percent (a five-year high) and a comparable measure for those in the 20-24 age category that jumped from 8.9 percent to 10.4 percent.
The government includes students 16 or older among the unemployed if they are actively looking for jobs and are unable to find work, said Martin Kohli, an economist at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' New York office. About 40 percent of teens have jobs or are looking for them, he said.
Complicating matters for many teens is the high cost of gasoline, which limits their search.
"I figure I'll make minimum wage," Melendez said. "You do the math; I'll be blowing it all on gas."
Even so, there are jobs available, especially "classic" summer jobs, such as baby sitters and camp workers, said Theresa Cruz Paul, assistant director of the Career Development and Advisement Center at William Paterson University in Wayne.
Even with the economy-related problems many retailers are facing, many stores are seeking summer help, but applicants need to be flexible, Cruz Paul said.
"A lot of students tend to be really, really picky" as to the specific store, its location or the hours," she said. "That is not a good thing, especially in this economy."
Because of the weak economy, there also are fewer part-time jobs related to academic majors, such as financial services representatives or junior accountants, Cruz Paul said.
"I think a lot of companies are making harder hiring choices, smarter choices, in that they are choosing people who are more experienced -- and won't be gone at the end of the summer," she said.
Even before the Labor Department report was released, economists were warning that because of widespread hiring freezes and layoffs, high school and college-age students could have a tough time finding jobs.
"The 2008 summer jobs outlook for the nation's teens is even worse than last year, given the three consecutive monthly losses in employment at the national level -- and the continued deterioration in the teen labor market," the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University wrote in an April report.
The center is predicting that only 34.2 percent of the nation's teens will be working this summer, down from 34.5 percent a year ago. That was the worst summer in post-World War II history and down more than 10 percent since 2000.
"Our summer jobs outlook poses serious problems for many teens hoping to find work this summer," the report said. "Younger teens [16-17], males, black and Hispanic youth and low-income youth are most at risk of joblessness."
The report's authors said that situation might not have been this bad if the Bush administration and Congress hadn't killed a proposal to spend $1 billion to create jobs for teens and unemployed young adults.
They called the failure to enact a jobs stimulus package "unforgivable, bipartisan malignant neglect of the labor market needs of the nation's youth."
The 2008 Junior Achievement Interprise Poll drew equally pessimistic conclusions.
"The economic climate for the summer of 2008 might deliver a frigid blast of disappointment to teens seeking employment," the poll takers wrote. "Traditionally, the top two job choices for teens are positions in retail/sales and restaurant/fast-food establishments. -- Unfortunately, both sectors are being battered disproportionately by the economic downturn."
Students such as Naomi An of Cresskill who held jobs during the school year often have an edge in gaining summer employment, the Northeastern study found.
An had a tutoring job during the school year, worked as a teacher's assistant at a summer school sponsored by her church last summer and will continue doing both this summer.
That experience was "definitely" a help in getting a job this year, An said. "If you see most of my working experiences, they are related to teaching."
In the restaurant industry, teens are being pushed aside by older workers with more experience, said Deborah Dowdell, president of the New Jersey Restaurant Association in Trenton.
"A lot of people with experience are looking for jobs, and restaurants are going to shy away from hiring people looking for just summer employment," she said.
Historically, restaurants would hire students "to be a good corporate citizen, to provide them with opportunities," she said. "But when times are tough, they have to cut back, they really have to scrutinize. They don't have the resources to be so generous. They don't have that luxury any more."
Hiring older workers for what traditionally have been entry-level jobs is filtering down and squeezing teens out, said Melissa Straub, an employment counselor at The Forum, a program at Teaneck High School designed to help teens and young adults prepare for the job market.
"There are not a lot of jobs out there," Straub said. "It's much more difficult than I ever recall. I remember my first job was a piece of cake. But with the times and the economy, it's become more competitive."
In addition to getting someone with experience for the same wage, employers don't have to worry about working papers and hour limitations as they do with younger workers, she said.
The result is that 18- to 21-year-olds are taking jobs that typically went to those 16 and 17, she said.
To see more of The Record, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.NorthJersey.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Record, Hackensack, N.J.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
Activate Email 
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
