What happened to the teenage worker? Looks like the excuses for not working are piling up between immigrants, retirees, school or are teenager just ‘chillaxing’ their summers away – PB/TK
Why Aren’t American Teenagers Working Anymore? – By Ben Steverman / June 5 2017
This summer American teenagers should find it a little easier to get a job—if they want one.
The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent in May, the lowest in 16 years, so teens started looking for summer jobs in the best labor market since the tech boom of the early 2000s. The May unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds was 14.3 percent, but teens usually find it harder to find jobs than their more experienced elders. Back in 2009, the teenage jobless rate hit 27 percent.
A CareerBuilder survey of 2,587 employers released last month found that 41 percent were planning to hire seasonal workers for the summer, up from 29 percent last year.
But the unemployment rate measures joblessness only among people who are actively looking for work. And many American teens aren’t.
For Baby Boomers and Generation X, the summer job was a rite of passage. Today’s teenagers have other priorities. Teens are likeliest to be working in July, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that’s not seasonally adjusted. In July of last year, 43 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds were either working or looking for a job. That’s 10 points lower than in July 2006. In 1988 and 1989, the July labor force participation rate for teenagers nearly hit 70 percent
Continue to Bloomberg.com article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-05/why-aren-t-american-teenagers-working-anymore
