Employment for teenagers hits lowest point in decades
Levi Wright’s biggest job this summer has been finding a summer job. Wright, a 17-year-old senior from Metro Boulevard Alternative High School, has been applying for work for more than a month without success. Applications at bookstores, bike shops and mall retailers have yielded nothing.
“I just need to put gas in my car,” he said. “I want spending cash, too.”
With gas prices soaring, food costs rising and the economy slowing, teenagers like Wright are facing a summer that could see the lowest teen employment rates in decades.
An annual study released by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University found that the teen employment rate for the first quarter of 2008 was the lowest it’s been in the 60 years that teen employment data has been recorded.
