Ample Jobs, but Youths Are Choosy

For youths who want to work this summer, the job market is strong, offering a wide range of employment opportunities. The bigger question seems to be, Who is going to take them?
“At Yellowstone, you could show up today and probably be in a dorm room and go to work tomorrow morning,” said Bill Berg, a founder of the job board Coolworks.com, which contracts with employers in the national parks and other travel destinations to promote job opportunities. “In many cases, you can write your own ticket now, particularly if you’re a cook or a chef.”
Other traditional jobs like lifeguards and hot-dog vendors at the ballpark also go wanting.
“Not as many kids want to do that kind of work,” said Howard Feldstein, director for the Arlington Employment Center, which for the last 11 years has held a summer job fair for 13-to-23-year-olds in the Washington area. “I think the desire for summer jobs has changed a little bit; kids are looking not only for income, but what makes them look good for the next step in their life.”
Increasingly, students are seeking out internships, both paid and unpaid, or jobs that will provide training for a future career.
In response, employers who rely on teenagers and college students are adapting their jobs to make them more attractive.
Summer camps, for example, are creating internships and working with universities to allow students to earn college credits, said Ann Sheets, president of the American Camp Association.
“When you think of working at summer camp, you normally think of recreation activities,” she said. “But there are many other positions that have nothing to do with recreation.”
For example, Ms. Sheets said, a student interested in nutrition could work as a dietitian with a camp. A business major can help in purchasing and operations.
“The camp directors I know have packaged opportunities so they apply to a number of types of students,” she said.
Darcie Strohmaier, a 21-year-old psychology major at Ramapo College in New Jersey, will be working as a cabin counselor at Camp Echo in the Catskills, for college credits. Ms. Strohmaier wants to be a teacher after graduation. She will be using the experience to do fieldwork with children.
As part of the cooperative program offered by her college, she will live with and supervise a group of 8-year-old girls. She will write weekly journals on her experience, followed by a term paper at the end of the summer. Her focus will be conflict resolution and motivation in children.
She pays the college $250 for each of four credits she will earn, but she will also be paid about $1,800 by the camp.
“It’s almost like taking a course you don’t go to school for,” Ms. Strohmaier said. “And the experience with these children will prepare me to be a better teacher.”
Marla Coleman, an owner and director of Camp Echo, said she was seeing more counselors who were interested in internship and arrangements like the ones for college credits.
“There are all kinds of variations and models,” she said.
Internships are also popular in numerous other areas, including accounting, finance and health care.
In recent years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of youths age 16 to 24 working from April to July has grown to 24.6 million in 2006 from 24.1 million in 2003. The percentage of youths participating varies slightly from 67.3 percent to 66.7 percent during that period.
The number of youths working this summer is expected to remain about the same and a wealth of online job sites like SummerJobs, SnagAJob, Teens4Hire are available to aid teenagers and college students in their search.
A sampling of job listings range from working in the dining room of Jordan House at Acadia National Park — “should be in good condition, expect to carry trays of dishes weighing more than 50 lbs 100 times a day” (pay $6 an hour, plus tips) — to canvassing communities to raise awareness for environmental groups ($4,000 to $6,000 for the summer) to performing and working as a character at Walt Disney World.
Still, there are concerns about unemployment, particularly in light of increases in the minimum wage.
The number of unemployed youths age 16 to 24 increased by 658,000 last summer, according to the Labor Department . And, the department’s monthly job report for May showed that the teenage unemployment rate was about three and a half times the national rate of 4.5 percent.
Some predict the situation will worsen with the passage of an increase to the federal minimum wage. In May, Congress passed and President Bush signed a law increasing the minimum wage to $7.25, from $5.15. The increase will occur in three steps. The first increase, to $5.85, will occur in July, two months after the bill was signed by the president. It will increase to $6.55 one year after that, and to $7. 25 a year later.
“With the minimum wage hike, people who hire lower-skilled, entry-level workers are saying, ‘Hmmm, maybe I don’t hire that extra worker or maybe I hire someone in the job market a little longer,’ ” said Dr. Jill Jenkins, chief economist for the Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit research group that studies issues of entry-level employment.
“You’re going to see fewer teens who are going to be employed when you bump up the wage rates. More people are going to come out looking for those jobs.”
Such attitudes typically pit student workers against retirees and immigrants, with child labor laws working against teenagers when it comes to employment.
“When you hire a teen you have to follow all the rules for the department,” said Nadia Conyers, youth employment program coordinator with the Arlington Employment Center. “A lot of places now, if you’re under 18, it’s a little bit harder to find a job.”
Ms. Conyers said the employment center compiled a list of retailers that would hire younger teenagers and provided workshops to help those who cannot find a job to create one for themselves, like baby-sitting, lawn mowing and running errands.
Chelsea Straughn, 15, who attended the Arlington job fair, résumé in hand, agreed the options were limited, but she still put in an application for seven jobs. Her favorite was a receptionist job with United Parcel Service that would require typing and answering phones, although most of the jobs she applied for centered around pools, either as a lifeguard or working at the gate.
“There wasn’t a lot to choose from, most jobs you had to be 16,” said Chelsea, who will be a sophomore at Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Va., next fall.
Still, both she and her mother, Pam Straughn, said just getting out and exploring the job market provided a valuable experience.
“It’s good to get out there and get a sense of what it is like to look for a job,” Ms. Straughn said. “This summer if she hears back from an employer that will be great. If not, that’s fine, too. We’ll be out there next year when there will be many more opportunities.”