Posted on 06/05/2005 12:59:12 AM PDT by GOPXtreme20
Fewer jobs for teens this summer - Unemployed less prepared for real world, report says
2005-06-03
by Jamie Swift
Journal Reporter
The scarcity of summer jobs for young people in King County and across the country has reached a crisis level, according to a report on youth employment released Thursday.
Nationally, less than 37 percent of teenagers are expected to be able to find jobs this summer. That's down from 47.5 percent in 1989 and last year's 42 percent, the lowest in the 57 years such data has been collected.
In King County, employment among teens 16-19 dropped 28 percent from 2000 to 2003, the report says.
``We're calling it a crisis,'' said Kris Stadelman, CEO of Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County, an independent nonprofit that completed the 16-page youth employment report.
More students dropping out
Compounding the job shortage, the report says, more students than ever are dropping out of high school, prompting experts to predict that American workers of tomorrow will not be prepared to compete in a global economy.
According to the report, the low-pay, low-skill jobs that have historically gone to high school students are now held by recent immigrants -- adding 1.8 million people to the workforce since 2000 -- older workers returning to the job market, and jobseekers who can't find work in their fields due to the sluggish economy.
``They're competing with elderly people to work at McDonald's,'' said Melinda Giovengo, manager at the Youthsource career training center in Renton, which primarily serves local high school drop-outs.
A Youthsource student, 18-year-old Ny'neshea Ray of Tukwila, said she's been frustrated by her summer job search.
``They don't have much jobs for older people now, so they're trying to take our jobs,'' said Ray. ``Nobody really wants to hire us (young people). They don't think we're responsible enough.''
Public funding decreasing
Another factor contributing to the job shortage is a shift in public funding away from summer job programs for youth, Giovengo said. It wasn't long ago, she said, that King County had a summer work program that offered jobs to 300 young people; now that's down to just 18.
Wendy Hurst, career specialist at Kentlake High School, doesn't know the statistics, but she's noticed the trend. The number of postings on the summer job board at the high school has decreased year after year, she said.
``It's not just summer jobs,'' she said. ``When I first got into this (six years ago), our graduates were walking out of here getting manufacturing jobs making $15 or $16 an hour. That's just not happening anymore.''
Young people from low-income families will be hurt most by the job shortage because they don't have the established networks that middle- and higher-income kids do.
``In a tight market, the network is key,'' Stadelman said. Teens from higher-income families ``have a broader network to link into jobs that are available to kids.''
Working teens from upper and middle income families also earn significantly more money (nationally, an average of $12.39/hour) than working teens from low-income families ($6.90/hour).
The significance of the spiraling drop in summer jobs goes far beyond the fact that fewer young people will have money to see a movie or pay for car insurance, Stadelman said.
Teens who don't work in the marketplace are less prepared for the real world, thus creating a less competitive American workforce, Stadelman said.
Young adults of today will be expected to replace the workers of the Baby Boom generation, ``some of the best educated and most productive workers in our history,'' Stadelman said.
``Where are those kids going and what are we going to do when they're our workforce?'' Stadelman said. ``How do you cope with that drop in education level and competitiveness of your workforce?''
But it's even more than that, she said.
``Those first jobs really shape us,'' Stadelman said. ``It helped us decide what we were good at; what we hated; and that school was more important than we thought. You find out the rules of work: show up on time, be respectful, and to work as a team.''
By way of helping to solve the job shortage, the Workforce Development Council report suggests connecting employers with young people, increasing public investment in youth work programs, and providing more rigorous coursework in schools.
Jamie Swift can be reached at jamie.swift@kingcountyjournal.com or 253-872-6646.
THE REPORT
View the youth employment report in its entirety at http://www.youthatwork.info/
Well now that all the entry level jobs have been taken by tens of millions of foreign nationals, there aren't many left for U.S. citizens. Welcome to the reality we've been trying to warn against.
I was a teen in the early 90s in South Florida (where I moved in my Freshman year of High School). Yes, there was a lot of immigrants (because I know many on this thread will blame immigrants), but I was still able to find work at an AMC movie theatre (at the concession stand) and then at Ballbuster, er, Blockbuster Video.
Senior year of college, this journalism major was walking around asking people at random how scared and frustrated we were about finding jobs.
It was just her odd perception. She walked off all huffy because none of us would give her a sob story to write!
"Another factor contributing to the job shortage is a shift in public funding away from summer job programs for youth, Giovengo said."
Seattle will just raise taxes for every program under the sun until everyone moves. Is every liberal/socialist county named King County?
Lots of help wanted signs around our area. So far, I haven't had as many calls asking for work as I have in the last few years.
Come try and find one in my town. Arrogant, dismissive generalizations are what's lazy - or just plain dishonest as I'm used to from your type..
I haven't seen a problem with minimum wage around this town.
Places have hired to their capacity. There are just fewer places now that jobs have been exported. Fewer places to work combined with larger population = some go without work. Sky doesn't have to be falling for that to be so. Some would just rather use such rhetoric to paint a rosier picture of things for us all. Kindof a Mr. Rogers "let's make believe" version of the world where all is rosey because Pubs are in office. Not much different from the dim approach.
I believe we're mostly talking about high school or college age kids who want summer employment. The article did touch on the issue of more dropouts though. That would be permanent low skill jobs.
Try as we might, we are never going to produce 100% college degreed adults. That being the case, we must maintain low skill jobs in the nation for citizens.
The alternative is to have high crime and more people on welfare. In both instances, this will cause a drain on those who do have degrees, as they pay more and more for those who don't.
Yeah right, Jamie Swift. The most affluent county in the entire Northwest, and you say that teens can't find work. Is it that all these poor teen's parents or grandparents, are doing those menial jobs. Or is it that the offered wages are being rejected by snotty teenage entitlement attitudes? I sure wish this article author, Jamie Swift, was here to answer direct questions.
Where do you live, a coal mining town? There are many jobs, (service, grocery stores, construction helpers, restaurants) are your children too good to work for minimum wage? I wasn't. Arrogant? O.K.
you mean to tell me my summer job doesn't come with a car and vacation time?
Never again. Ever.
Something has changed in the basic character of the American teen. They are insolent, indolent and ignorant and they don't want to change. There are exceptions I'm sure but I'm not about to try to seek them out. Even the exceptions have been degraded.
It may be the maturing of our society, it may be a decadence that comes with too much wealth, it may be the corruption by the mass media, or all of these. I wonder about the influence of the commonality of divorce. At any rate it is real and it is big and it is getting bigger. It is a sea change.
I know hundreds of other employers who feel the same way. HR managers have shifted from being an entry way into careers to gatekeepers trying to keep the shiftless out.
If you put a hundred illegal 18 year olds on my doorstep at 7:00 tomorrow morning I could get on the horn and have jobs for every one of them, sight unseen, by noon. If you put one American high school male on my doorstep I honestly don't know who I would call. The tide is that powerful.
It may just be my situation but I don't think so. I don't like it but that is the way it is. I may be operating below the skill level of Americans or outside of the mainstream but even though I am looking for the developing dynamic of the new workforce, I just don't see it.
Youth@Work is an initiative of the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County. The WDC is a private, nonprofit organization that oversees employment-related programs for youth, adults, and employers across King County. Our annual budget of approximately $20 million is administered by a staff of 30 and an active board of directors made up predominantly of local business leaders. The WDC’s funding comes from the U.S. Department of Labor as well as from private foundations...
Staff or 30 & an annual budget, funded by US taxpayers, and what do you expect they would 'find'? To put it another way, what does one suppose they were looking for?
I'd speculate that they were 'looking for' ways to get increased funding or 'justification' for the funding they're getting.
Back to the $20 million. $20 million in payroll would fund 4000 summer jobs @ a generous (for teens) $5000 in wages for a summer job.
Absent from the discussion is that Washington (state) has the highest minimum wage in the US ($7.16 per hour) and that the mandated minimum wages extends to include restaurant workers.
Bill Would Study Whether State's High Minimum Wage Is A Good Thing
In King County, employment among teens 16-19 dropped 28 percent from 2000 to 2003, the report says.
Historical perspective, minimum wage, Washington State. 1999--$5.70 per hour. 2000--$6.50; 2001--$6.72; 2002--$6.90; 2003--$7.01; 2004--$7.16; 2005--$7.35.
IOW's, the minimum wage increased 23% (1999-2003) and the 'surprise' is that youth worker employment levels dropped 28%?
This is nonsense from my point of view. You can not go in a business in the area that doesn't have a help wanted sign out. Job fairs a Savon, Walmart 30% understaffed (this I know from a manager that works there), entry level jobs at Home Depot paying over $11.00 an hour, there is an entry level crisis in the area.
Is that a fair comparison? On one hand you have an 18 yo that the employer won't have to pay taxes on, benefits to or workman's comp. Compare that to a legal high school student who has school studies, possibly sports and taxes must be paid on his wages.
It's easy to see why employers take the easy way out.
Instead of hiring illegals why don't the Chambers of Commerce get together and vote the politicians who make doing business difficult out? Instead, every year they support the same politicians.
Blaming America's youth for the problems created by overzealous politicians is just an excuse for not doing the right thing.
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