Toughest Summer Job Is Finding One

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/business/25teen.html?_r=1&partner=EXCITE&ei=5043&oref=slogin

By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: May 25, 2008

TULSA, Okla. — School is out, and Aaron Stallings, his junior year of high school behind him, wanders the air-conditioned cocoon of the Woodland Hills Mall in search of a job.

Mr. Stallings, 18, says he has been looking for three months, burning gasoline to get to the mall, then filling out applications at stores selling skateboard T-shirts, beach sandals and baseball caps. He likes the idea of working amid the goods he covets. But so far, no offers.

“I’m going to go to Iraq and get a job,” he says acidly. “I hear they’ve got cheap gas.” He grins. “I’m just playing. But I’ve been all over, and nobody’s hiring. They just say, ‘We’ll call you tomorrow.’ And no one ever calls back.”


Brandi Simons for The New York Times

In Oklahoma, Aaron Stallings, 18, has applied with no luck.


As the forces of economic downturn ripple widely across the United States, the job market of 2008 is shaping up as the weakest in more than half a century for teenagers looking for summer work, according to labor economists, government data and companies that hire young people.

This deterioration is jeopardizing what many experts consider a crucial beginning stage of working life, one that gives young people experience and confidence along with pocket money.


Brandi Simons for The New York Times

Claire Tolson, 17, works at a Tulsa, Okla., restaurant. One of her friends’ parents knows the owner.


Little more than one-third of the 16- to 19-year-olds in the United States are likely to be employed this summer, the smallest share since the government began tracking teenage work in 1948, according to a research paper published by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. That is a sharp drop from the 45 percent level of teenage employment reached in 2000.

FULL story at link.

Adults can't even find jobs around here, let alone the kids.

trying to save their house or pay their health insurance after being 'downsized' or laid off after decades of faithful service.

It's tough all over

:cry:

We never got out of the last recession.

The economy stinks, unemployment is up, wages are down, and so for many young people the military doesn't look so bad! Hell they have to come up with some kind of scam to get them in the military. When Bush invades Iran, all hell will break lose, and whoever is the next president will most likely "have" to start the draft up again.