Kids think they are owed, and parents think they owe them. So many kids are horribly spoiled. We have two teenage children (one over 14 and one under) and almost none of their friends worked this summer. One of mine did, and one did unpaid chores around the house (you want supper ... you do x, and y and z). We're considered mean and ruthless ... none of their friends even have chores to do, and if they do ... it's laughable what's expected ... and many get paid for the bare minimum. I know one kid that gets $50 per week to clean his room on Saturday!!
Kids aren't working because they don't have to.
Many kids can’t compete with the low wage Latino workers at all of the fast food joints, whether they be legal or illegal. I live in a suburb of Chicago and my local McDonalds is now almost totally Latino run. Barely any whites at all, teenager or otherwise. There is one older white woman, and that’s about it. A couple of blacks. But, primarily, it is all Latino. Same at other fast food restaurants, Burger King, KFC, Wendy’s, you name it, they are all chock full of minorities, mostly Latino. The white kids have gone the way of the dodo bird. And this is in a primarily white suburb, although that is rapidly changing now also. I go to my local Walmart and it is like the Tower of Babel. Hmmm, very soon I will be the minority. Good thing I’m retired and not trying to find a job.
I think that is part of the equation. Another part may be the limitations on what kids can do, which renders them less useful to an employer.
My first job after doing a lot of farm work on my grandfather's and great uncle's farms was driving sheeting on a seawall crew with a 110 lb sheeting hammer. I was 14. It was hot hard work, but paid much better than minimum wage (got me in shape, too).
Nowadays, kids just are not allowed to do that sort of work.
I just can't blame them for not being excited over a fast-food job.