That rite of passage: the teen summer job is disappearing. We鈥檒l ask why and probe the costs beyond the missing paycheck.
Time was when American teens worked in the summer. Summer jobs. More than 70 percent flipping burgers, mowing lawns, scooping ice cream, swinging hammers. These days, far fewer teens have summer jobs. Less than half. It鈥檚 partly that other people do those jobs now. Immigrants. Older Americans. But it鈥檚 also that cultural norms have changed. It鈥檚 internships now. Summer school. Enrichment. This hour On point: What it means when far fewer teens work summer jobs. 鈥� Tom Ashbrook
Guests
, TIME correspondent. ()
, senior editor at The Atlantic, covering economics and labor markets. ()
, president and CEO of the Columbus Urban League, a nonprofit where she runs a summer jobs program for youth.
From Tom鈥檚 Reading List
鈥� 鈥淚t鈥檚 not like the jobs aren鈥檛 there. The ice cream still needs scooping. A Tilt-a-Whirl doesn鈥檛 run itself. And that floppy, weirdly heavy rubber frog that somersaults toward the rotating lily pads? Hit or miss, someone鈥檚 got to bring it back to the catapult for the next lucky player. The work of an American summer remains, sticky and sweet as cotton candy, which doesn鈥檛 sell itself either.鈥�
鈥撯�淭he summer job is considered a rite of passage for the American Teenager. It is a time when tossing newspaper bundles and bussing restaurant tables acts as a rehearsal for weightier adult responsibilities, like bundling investments and bussing dinner-party plates. But in the last few decades, the summer job has been disappearing. In the summer of 1978, 60 percent of teens were working or looking for work. Last summer, just 35 percent were.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淎s high schools across the country finish up their academic year and teenagers get ready for the summer, there is one thing many of them won鈥檛 be doing over the next few months: working at a job. The number of teenagers who have some sort of job while in school has dropped from nearly 40 percent in 1991, when I graduated from high school, to less than 20 percent today, an all-time low since the United States started keeping track in 1948.鈥�
Your Summer Job Stories
鈥淲orked in a drug store, a photo processing lab, a waitress and a record store all throughout college and even when I got my first job after college (sometimes one job but sometimes two-three jobs at a time)鈥� 鈥� Lori on Facebook
https://twitter.com/svizzerams/status/881865525889966082
鈥淭hree years delivering Milwaukee Journal (year round). Then ice cream vendor. Then baling hay. Summers while in college, concrete/masonry laborer. Have always felt more comfortable working than not.鈥� 鈥� Jim on Facebook
https://twitter.com/lego_mama/status/881866544883671046
鈥淔arm work every summer starting at age 14; paid most of my college cost. Now friends who run small businesses or farms tell me that kids aren鈥檛 interested in 鈥榬eal work,鈥� and of course, the cost of college is out of sight.鈥� 鈥� Steven on Facebook
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