In 2010, the latest year for which numbers are available, less than half of the nation’s youth (16–24) were employed during the month of July, traditionally the peak of summer employment, the lowest percentage since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started collecting data in 1948 and almost 20 percentage points lower than the peak in 1989. There’s little indication of that number improving. Teenagers and twentysomethings are the least skilled and most expendable members of the work force, so it’s not surprising that they would be edged out in a recession by more reliable full-time workers such as senior citizens, immigrants, and other adults who need those jobs.
But other long-term factors are at play. Life is more competitive than ever before, and kids—or perhaps their parents—worry about wasting time on jobs that won’t yield career dividends. On Harvard’s campus, where I work, students feel crushing pressure to build their resumes the instant they arrive, eschewing unskilled summer jobs for unpaid internships with non-profit organizations, political campaigns and research labs. Others spend the summer studying foreign languages or preparing for grueling graduate admissions exams.
The same pattern is found at the secondary school level, where teen employment has been on a downward trend since 2000. Tougher graduation standards have created a three-fold increase in summer school attendance over the last 20 years. And students feel the need to pad their college applications with unique life experiences as the admissions process has grown more selective. High schools also now routinely require public service — surely a good thing — that can further limit the available hours to work for pay.
Many of these social changes are a sign of a healthy, and upwardly mobile, society. But there’s a problem when more than 50% of the nation’s young workforce has never held a basic, paying job. We may be postponing their entry into adulthood. One paradox of contemporary life is that the lengthening of adolescence has not better prepared young people for what comes next. Despite unprecedented technological and cultural sophistication, this generation’s 20-year-olds lack some of the ‘soft’ skills that are necessary to move up the professional ladder: perseverance, humility, flexibility and commitment.
In the end, though, it’s their elders who are responsible, and we shouldn’t demonize young people for our own failings. Most graduates embarking on their first job are eager to perform well and desperately need the income. It’s grown-ups, not teenagers, who have honed the values, expectations and opportunities from which our nation’s youth develop their work habits. If we want a more respectful and industrious workforce, we need to do a better job creating one.
Erika Christakis, M.P.H., M.Ed., is a Harvard College administrator who blogs at ErikaChristakis.com. The views expressed are solely her own.
2-2
