Worst Summer on Record for US Teens Seeking Work

Shawshank, VA 9/7/2011 (PennyPayDay) – Teenagers hung out on street corners and on the steps of boarded-up buildings in impoverished downtown Newburgh one blisteringly hot August day this year.

With the economy still in the doldrums and government summer work programs losing funding, there was little for them to do in this town about 60 miles north of New York City.

They were not alone: It was the worst summer on record for U.S. teenagers seeking work, delaying millions of young Americans' entry into the labor force and creating a generation that history suggests may be scarred by the experience.

Only a quarter of the 16.7 million Americans between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs this summer, the fewest since at least World War II and compared with 45 percent in 2000.

The numbers are especially bad for black male teens from families who earn less than $40,000 a year: only 12 percent had summer work in June and July, according to Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies.

"I want to work and I'm good for anything," said Ashante Coston, 16, from Newburgh, who was spending the day helping his mother look after his baby brother.

Last summer, he worked at a youth center, but this year, he has had no luck finding work.

The teen summer employment rate has plummeted by almost a third since 2006 before the financial crisis and recession hit, and any meager recovery for the overall jobs market appears to have left out teens altogether.

Teens without work experience are going to find it more difficult to find full-time work in the future and are likely to earn less when they do, said Andrew Sum, professor at Northeastern University and one of America's top experts on youth employment.

The problem is not confined to the United States. With youth playing a leading role in protests across Europe and in the Middle East there have been some high-profile calls for world leaders to tackle youth unemployment. Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has repeatedly called it an "epidemic" that cannot be ignored.

Tim Barnicle, a former assistant secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, hopes President Barack Obama will acknowledge the problem when he lays out a new jobs policy on Thursday.

"How do you ensure an experienced, disciplined workforce when you lose years of preparation?" Barnicle asked. "There's also the social aspect: You're suggesting to them they are not worth that much, when at 19 they can't even get crummy jobs."

There are wider consequences too: a lack of morale may sap energy out of the generation on whose shoulders the burden of paying for the retirements of the baby boomers will lie.

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