KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A staggering number of teenagers are headed back to school this year after having spent a summer without work.
According to a study, summer employment for teens inched up just one-percent, from an all-time low. The study, by Professor Andrew Sum of Northeastern University, stated that only about three in 10 teenagers held any type of paid job this summer marking it the fourth consecutive year of all-time low teen employment.
As 17-year-old Connor Ehman, a student at Rockhurst High School, stocked shelves at The New Dime Store in Brookside, he talked about why he got this job more than a year ago.
“First of all, I wanted money to put gas in my car. But then I just needed money for other stuff,” Ehman said.
Ehman said the work has taught him valuable life lessons, and gives him an increased sense of independence.
“Getting paid what I get paid, you realize spending money is not just nothing, like it means a lot more I guess,” said Ehman.
However, for every three kids like Ehman working an after-school or summer job, there are seven who do not get the opportunity. They lose the ability to learn while on the job, save for the future, or get ahead.
Teenagers like 18-year-old Joshua Hopkins, who said he has applied for close to 50 jobs since graduating from Ace Prep School in April of 2013, still has not received a call back.
“I think they need to give teenagers an opportunity to be hired instead of just basing it on experience, because we have to get experience to have experience,” Hopkins said.
According to Sum’s study, the teenage summer unemployment rate has gone from 52 percent of teens working in 1999 to just over 30 percent this summer.
“Like understanding you need to be on time and trying to always like, give your best to whatever you’re involved in,” Ehman said about what he has leaned while on the job.
However teens like Hopkins realize what they are missing out on.
“It doesn’t let us get the opportunity to know what it’s like to work in different offices and operations, so we don’t have the feel to have diversity or anything,” he said.
Sum said parental income plays a role, with higher income households more likely to have kids with jobs.
According to two professors who co-wrote a book on teen unemployment, those who are experiencing unemployment now have years of lower earnings and an increased likelihood of unemployment ahead of them.