Bummer Summer for Teens

Have you noticed fewer new young faces helping you at local businesses this summer? If so, you are not imagining things. The number of workers age 14 to 18 who were able to find new jobs during the past two summers was nearly one-half what it was before the recession. You may have heard that this last recession was a "mancession," since the majority of workers laid off were male; but our State Employment Economist, Nick Beleiciks, talks about the "teencession" that has happening throughout Oregon in his article: Recession Cools Summer Hiring of Teens.

Teenage workers did not escape the effects of the recession. The last two years have been just as tough for teenage job seekers as it has been for everyone, if not worse. The unemployment rate for Oregonians ages 16 to 19 was 16.4 percent in 2007, three times the rate for the overall labor force. The teen unemployment rate nearly doubled during the recession, reaching 28.8 percent in 2010!

Although the odds of finding a job seem stacked against them, teenagers are able to find summer work. Oregon employers hired nearly 27,500 new workers ages 14 to 18 in July, August, or September of 2010. The summer is always the busiest time of year for teen hiring, but it slowed during the recession and did not recover in 2010. Hiring in this age group during the summers of 2009 and 2010 was down 44 percent from summer 2007.

If you want to learn more, check out the full article!