Posted on 05/06/2018 9:13:08 AM PDT by Theoria
A quarter-century ago, there were 56 teenagers in the labor force for every “limited service” restaurant — that is, the kind where you order at the counter.
Today, there are fewer than half as many, which is a reflection both of teenagers’ decreasing work force participation and of the explosive growth in restaurants.
But in an industry where cheap labor is an essential component in providing inexpensive food, a shortage of workers is changing the equation upon which fast-food places have long relied. This can be seen in rising wages, in a growth of incentives, and in the sometimes odd situations that business owners find themselves in.
This is why Jeffrey Kaplow, for example, spends a lot of time working behind the counter in his Subway restaurant in Lower Manhattan. It’s not what he pictured himself doing, but he simply doesn’t have enough employees.
Mr. Kaplow has tried everything he can think of to find workers, placing Craigslist ads, asking other franchisees for referrals, seeking to hire people from Subways that have closed.
Yet there he was during a recent lunchtime rush, ringing up veggie footlongs and fountain drinks. He feared that if the line grew too long, people might get frustrated and not come back.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“There simply are not the # or quality of jobs available for HS students today, and part of the problem is regulation.”
Not really. There are the jobs, but there are also others filling those jobs. There are more minimum wage jobs today than ever before. Hell, Obama helped see to that since companies laid off 2/3 of salaried positions during his reign.
If we deported all the illegal aliens, and we’re talking far more than 20 million, every kid in America would have a job just fine.
Truman was kind of the end of America’s love affair with FDR. Eisenhower had the country on auto-pilot; JFK didn’t live long enough to totally screw things up and had to leave it to LBJ who screwed everything up magnificently; Nixon was a paranoid; Ford, a space filler; and Carter should have stuck with goobers. So you see, Reagan was my first real first President. Trump is my second.
I’ve been to Hawaii several times and my home was paid off years ago so do please do the boomers a favor. Show a little respect for your elders. You just might learn a few things. As for me, I’d just like to be left alone.
BTW, to paraphrase Ronnie, you aren’t stupid, you just know so many things that aren’t so. Have a nice evening.
yeah, meant 50 million.
How about all that automation talk, with robots doing the minimum wage jobs, that we used to hear about?
From now on I am going to call everyone who offends me geezers.
Ask Planned Parenthood.
Hm, given your screen-name I have every confidence you know how entrenched illegal and fraudulent workers are depended upon; after all, it's really common to see Computer Science / IT / Programming job postings with 5-, 7-, and even 10-years of experience listed as a 'requirement' for an "entry level" job: almost certainly an H1B visa scam, and if not, then often trying to get away with paying entry-level wages for senior-level work. (This isn't even touching the systemic, chronic and reflexive anti-training mentality common to the public sector; for all its faults and inefficiencies, at least the military has a positive and realistic outlook towards training, as opposed to the corporate mentality of all training is a loss
.)
“I hate it when FReepers rag on all young people. How are you geezers with your harsh dismissiveness of youth somehow morally superior to young people?”
Yes stereotypes are almost always a really bad thing to use.
Many of the kids today are working and working hard. But there is also a growing set of the stereotypical pampered ones that wont work.
Different from in the past.
Awesome! Alotta money back then. Both my boys want ZERO debt when they graduate college. We started saving years ago for them....but they have worked, saved, and eldest has landed full-ride scholarships. Proud of them both.
The teens I know can’t get fast food jobs, they are all taken by adult foreigners. They do deliver food though.
To all, I wasn’t meaning to insult people with age and wisdom! I was giving back because I am sick of people ripping the youth. Really? Isn’t that a little “done” since it was written in parchments 2000 years ago? Every older generation thinks less of the younger ones, and every older generation used to be the younger ones. It’s just a dumb argument that I get sick of. Being older doesn’t make you better. Sure, if you’ve been paying attention, it should make you wiser, but you show a LACK of wisdom if you rip the younger, less wise, by definition. Of course they re less wise; now do you feel superior since you chided them for their lack of years on this earth?
My kids work too, and they have had to be creative to do so, taking online jobs or delivery jobs which work well with any location from college to home. Like we did, they are only starting to figure out how the world works, how politics affect their lives, etc. No one at 18 “knows a hell of a lot.” They are all on the way to learning and synthesizing all this crap. Heck, I can’t keep up myself.
Is that you David Hogg? Welcome to Free Republic!
Nope, I don’t think the youth should be running anything. I just don’t think old people are necessarily morally superior by benefit of years.
Funny - the local Chik-Fil-A and Cracker Barrel have loads of teens working for them.
ConservaTeen can’t do fast food...He runs businesses...and now all daughter is trying to start a Lemonade/Limeade/Orangeade business...
Actually, CodeToad, has nothing to do with programming. It’s cryptography.
“it’s really common to see Computer Science / IT / Programming job postings with 5-, 7-, and even 10-years of experience listed as a ‘requirement’ for an “entry level” job: “
The scam, too, is the impossible requirements that Americans are held to but H-1B foreign workers are not. They’ll have an American as a token interview then choose the foreigner who is an illegal alien because they overstayed their visa.
Unless you have a Parent (Dad) who makes you work to pay for your Cell phone/bill and any XBox crap you want. Grandson is 16 been working since he was legal to work, and works what hrs the gov’t will let a school age kid, summers are as many hrs as he can get. Spends nearly every dime too. But it’s not coming out of his Dad’s pocket. Needs lessons on Economics. Plans on Trade School when he graduates. Better start saving then.
Illegals have also taken over such things as roofing and painting, which was a common summer job for teens.
Yup. I've seen the same thing. However, if you go to a Chik-fil-a, you'll find the highest count of employees in the industry, yet the places are still a license to print money. In addition, all the employees are clean, polite and helpful.
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