NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Jaelyn Chester will wait your tables or stock your shelves. She鈥檒l wash your dishes or scrub your toilets. If only someone would give the 17-year-old a chance.
鈥淚鈥檝e been looking everywhere,鈥� says Chester, an A+ student, high school basketball star and aspiring engineer who has blanketed her community with dozens of applications. 鈥淚鈥檓 not unemployed because I鈥檓 incompetent. I鈥檓 unemployed because nobody鈥檚 hiring.鈥�
The summer job, a rite-of-passage for generations of American teenagers, isn鈥檛 so easy to come by.
About one-third of 16- to 19-year-olds in the U.S. were employed last summer, federal data show, down from a peak of about 60% in the late 1970s. Experts鈥� pessimistic forecasts are combining with reports from frustrated jobless young people around the country to form a seasonal outlook far from bathed in sunshine.
鈥淭he opportunities for workers at the start of the career ladder started to dry up,鈥� says Nicole Bachaud, an economist for ZipRecruiter, saying teens are among the labor market’s 鈥渕ost marginalized groups.鈥�
Without a job, Chester worries her summer will be ruined. She wonders how she鈥檒l fill her tank with gas and what she鈥檒l do if she wants to go to a concert. A trip to look at colleges in North Carolina with some friends would be destined to be canceled. So her hunt continues.
Chester keeps copies of her resume in her car and has a 30-second spiel memorized when she decides to pop into a restaurant or store and try to talk with a manager. She and her friends help ready one another when they set out on their job hunt, trading tips and professional-looking clothes from their closets. Positions that once sounded awful to her, like dishwashing, no longer seem so.
鈥淎t this point,鈥� says the teen from Lake Mary, Florida, 鈥渋t would be hard to say no to anything.鈥�
Analyzing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas found the number of jobs secured by teens fell 25% last summer from the year prior. The firm says inflation, oil prices and cautious hiring are likely to lead to even fewer jobs this year, resulting in the lowest summer hiring total for teens since the federal government began tracking it in 1948.
Teens most commonly work in food preparation and serving jobs and sales, according to BLS data. But Jaune Little, director of recruiting services at the human resources company Insperity, says some entry-level jobs have been eliminated and teens now compete with more experienced candidates for the remaining ones.
鈥淎 lot of the entry-level roles that once existed simply do not any longer,鈥� Little says. 鈥淭hose that do exist are on leaner teams that have less ability and desire to develop and train someone. In many instances, they are prioritizing more skilled workers even if they are overqualified.鈥�
Max Stephenson began looking for a job last year after graduating from high school. Nothing turned up all summer. Once she began at the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College, she got a work study position in the cafeteria, still keeping an eye out for a more permanent gig.
Now, school鈥檚 out again, and Stephenson is again jobless.
The 19-year-old from Little Rock, Arkansas, lost track of how many jobs she鈥檚 applied for, but thinks it鈥檚 somewhere between 50 and 100. She can鈥檛 help thinking it鈥檚 tougher than previous generations had it to find work paying around the minimum wage.
鈥淚 thought it would be much easier than it鈥檚 been,鈥� Stephenson says. 鈥淥ld people say, 鈥楯ust walk in there and give them a firm handshake.鈥� That doesn鈥檛 work so well now.鈥�
A 2022 report by Pew Research Center found summer employment of teens fell during the early 2000s dot-com bubble, and dropped even more during and after the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. White teens are more likely to have a job than teens from any other racial group, Pew found.
Across demographics, though, teens are reporting difficult job searches, taking to Reddit and TikTok with rants about phantom postings, managers who ghost them and applications that go nowhere.
It鈥檚 a struggle Connor Vukelich knows well.
After he turned 16, he applied anywhere he could find in a 30-mile radius of his home near Vancouver, Washington. No offers followed and Vukelich鈥檚 friends were similarly coming up empty-handed.
鈥淭here鈥檚 all these 鈥榃e鈥檙e Hiring鈥� signs but no one鈥檚 actually hiring,鈥� Vukelich says. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 going on? Why can鈥檛 any of us find jobs?鈥�
When his search turned fruitless, he ended up working on his parents鈥� lavender farm. But the frustration of the experience led Vukelich 鈥� who is now 20 and a student at Embry鈥揜iddle Aeronautical University 鈥� to launch Poppin鈥� Jobs, an employment search site launched this year and aimed at teens and 20-somethings.
Vukelich believes artificial intelligence is robbing teens of some potential jobs and that laws to boost the minimum wage in some states have pitted first-time job-seekers against more experienced candidates.
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 see the value in hiring someone without any experience,鈥� he says of employers, 鈥渢hey鈥檙e not as willing to give someone that shot.鈥�
Some teen applicants find painful job searches eventually pay off. Demie Njea, a 16-year-old from Lexington, Kentucky, started applying for jobs once she turned 14, her state鈥檚 legal working age. A search centered on fast food spots and stores turned to one that included jobs as a janitor, daycare worker and more.
Nothing went anywhere the first summer. Or the second. Njea estimates she applied for more than 100 jobs in all. She started wondering if she鈥檇 ever get a first job.
Finally, an offer came and Njea started working at Sonic. She is thrilled. But when a friend who turned 15 started applying for work, Njea had to be honest.
鈥淚 had to calmly put her down and say, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e not going to get it,鈥欌�� Njea says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just not going to happen.鈥�
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Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and
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