Teen Unemployment

  • Why teen summer jobs are far and few between

    May 2019 ·  Samantha Summers ·  The OC Register

    A summer job has become a rite of passage for American teenagers. From scooping ice cream to lifeguarding at the community pool, summer jobs have allowed teens to earn some extra cash before heading back to school in the fall. But over the past few decades, the rate of teenagers looking for summer jobs has fallen significantly. One contributing factor to the decline: Rising state and local…
  • Is Amazon’s holiday hiring foreshadowing the future?

    November 2018 ·  Samantha Summers ·  Reno Gazette Journal

    This holiday season, Santa’s little helpers might come with a battery. While retailers across the country are beefing up seasonal hires to prepare for the holiday shopping apocalypse, Amazon is taking a different tack: hiring 20,000 fewer seasonal hires from previous years and increasing workplace automation. It may be a frightening preview of holidays to come: As mandated minimum wages across the country continue to rise, retailers are forced…
  • Minimum wage increases keep teenagers from summer jobs

    August 2018 ·  Michael Saltsman and Samantha Summers ·  The News Press

    This summer’s 9.2 percent youth unemployment rate is deceptively low–and disguises a disturbing trend. Nearly 11 million teenagers aged 16-19 have dropped out of the labor force entirely, which means they don’t have a job and aren’t looking for one. This represents a nearly 20-percentage point decline from two decades ago, when more than half of all teens were in the labor force. Some of the reasons…
  • Time to find that summer job? Think again

    May 2018 ·  Michael Saltsman; Samantha Summers ·  My Central Jersey

    School’s almost out, and the only thing hotter than the weather is parents’ desire to get their teens out of the house and into the summer workforce. This summer, that’ll be easier than usual; the teen unemployment rate has dipped below 13 percent — a level not seen since the Clinton years. But it’s not all good news. Despite the low youth unemployment rate, the number of…
  • Capitol Hill’s hypocrisy on intern pay

    June 2017 ·  Michael Saltsman ·  The Hill

    It’s intern season in the nation’s capital, where hundreds of young adults decamp to D.C. for the summer to learn the legislative process. Who knew they’d also get an object lesson in Capitol Hill hypocrisy? The recently-introduced Raise the Wage Act of 2017 would increase the federal minimum wage by 107 percent, to $15 an hour from $7.25. A new Employment Policies Institute analysis shows that 95 percent of the…
  • Opinion: Retail apocalypse has crippled teen job market

    May 2017 ·  Jordan Bruneau ·  East Bay Times

    Memorial Day weekend marked the unofficial start to summer. But for young jobseekers, there is nothing to celebrate. American retailers that have traditionally staffed up in summers are closing at an unprecedented rate. More than 3,500 stores have closed already this year, with at least 10 well-known retail chains filing for bankruptcy protection. These include RadioShack, Payless Shoes, and Rue21, which plan to close more than 1,000…