{"id":738015,"date":"2026-07-02T01:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T01:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/738015\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T01:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T01:45:12","slug":"what-fewer-working-teenagers-could-mean-for-the-future-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/738015\/","title":{"rendered":"What fewer working teenagers could mean for the future workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a pretty tough summer for young job-seekers. Outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas<\/a> predicts this will be the worst summer for teen hiring in the nearly 80 years that BLS has been gathering the data. <\/p>\n

The unemployment rate<\/a> among 16-to-19-year-olds has been ticking up steadily in recent years\u2014 from 10.3% in May 2023, to 14.7% in May 2026. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there\u2019s been another change with teen participation in the labor market over many decades \u2014 fewer of them have been working or looking for work. <\/p>\n

In the 1980s, about two out of three teenagers had paid work in the summer, according to BLS\u2019s data on labor force participation<\/a>, which is not seasonally adjusted. In recent years, that\u2019s down to around one in three. <\/p>\n

The long-running decline in teen employment has consequences for young people, their parents, and U.S. employers.<\/p>\n

I met Nick Burka at Coney Island Beach on a windy Saturday in early summer. He\u2019s 31, and said that growing up on New York\u2019s Upper East Side he had one job. <\/p>\n

\u201cI babysat my upstairs neighbor \u2014 just once,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was kind of a disaster. This kid was really intense and a little scary. I didn\u2019t get paid and I just never went back.\u201d <\/p>\n

In fact, like many in recent generations, Burka never got a paying job as a teen. He didn\u2019t feel like he had to. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had an allowance,\u201d he said. \u201cMy parents gave me money.\u201d<\/p>\n

In college at Vassar, he worked as a computer-science tutor and research assistant. Today he runs a small tech nonprofit that works on disability benefit access. <\/p>\n

But he feels like he missed something growing up. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think all the people I know who worked seem more responsible than me,\u201d Burka said. <\/p>\n

So what\u2019s driven the decline in work among teens? <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a decision of labor supply,\u201d said economist Hilary Wething at the Economic Policy Institute. \u201cFewer teens are looking to participate in the workforce. For 18- and 19-year-olds, the share enrolled in high school or college grew from about 45% in 1984 to 63% in 2025. That\u2019s a pretty big jump. They just have more competing priorities than previous generations: extracurriculars, college prep, academic programs, internships.\u201d <\/p>\n

For middle- and upper-middle-class parents, these options may make more financial sense than pushing their kid to get a minimum-wage summer job, especially if it helps them get into a better college or land a scholarship.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the case for Paul Rades of Silver Spring, Maryland, whose 16-year-old daughter, a rising high school senior, will be babysitting and mowing lawns for pocket money this summer. Most of her time, though, will be spent in non-money-earning activities: practicing for varsity sports and doing unpaid internships at a public defender\u2019s office and a refugee assistance organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no objection. I encourage her to work, for the soft-skill and people-skill development, as well as just having the spare cash,\u201d Rades said.<\/p>\n

That sentiment comes from his own experience growing up. He had to work from his early teens, picking strawberries, stocking shelves, and delivering pizza.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised by parents who had a very strong work ethic. I had to make my way in the world. I had to pay for everything,\u201d Rades said. <\/p>\n

But he said the reality is quite different for his daughter. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a very driven young woman, she has a heavy academic load, she\u2019s very competitive in sports, does extracurricular and volunteer work. I don\u2019t want her to be stressed out working 40 hours a week, because I don\u2019t think that\u2019s healthy for a child,\u201d Rades said. \u201cHow is she going to hold down a job at Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods? There isn\u2019t time in a 24-hour daily cycle for her to add more work.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tonee Harris, 19, of Indianapolis has managed to land not one, but two jobs this summer, with paid work and a paid internship. She\u2019ll be a college sophomore at Butler University in the fall. She earned $18 an hour in late spring working at her grandmother\u2019s daycare centers, and now she\u2019s interning in a chemistry lab at Eli Lilly. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt pays $26 an hour, which is huge for me,\u201d Harris said. \u201cI\u2019m going to use this money for a down payment on a home. I\u2019m looking forward to purchasing a home after I finish my bachelor\u2019s degree.\u201d <\/p>\n

Throughout high school, Harris worked for pay at the daycare centers, while also attending STEM camps and volunteering at Planned Parenthood and the Indiana Science Fair, helping to build her resume and land scholarships to attend college. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Wething said, for less-advantaged, lower-income teens, a lot of summer employment opportunities have dried up in recent decades<\/a>. That\u2019s ever since a primary source of federal funding, the Summer Youth Employment Program, was weakened and converted to block grants to cities and states in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents for which maybe college is not possible, they benefited the most from something like a federal jobs program in their area,\u201d said Wething. \u201cNow that doesn\u2019t exist in certain parts.\u201d <\/p>\n

There\u2019s also been a decline in demand for teen workers<\/a>, said Peter Cappelli, a management professor at The Wharton School and director of the school\u2019s Center for Human Resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmployers are just not as willing to take on new people, even in the summer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And the types of jobs Cappelli did as a young adult just starting out in the workforce are no longer available.<\/p>\n

\u201cFactory jobs you could do without much of any practice or skill, jobs that are entry-level, particularly for manual work, like pushing a broom in a shop\u2014those jobs are just gone,\u201d Cappelli said. <\/p>\n

In addition, employers can now use staffing agencies to find temps and seasonal workers without tapping the teen market. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll things being equal, you\u2019d rather hire a somewhat older person,\u201d said Carl Van Horn, director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. \u201cThere\u2019s queasiness or concern on the part of some employers about hiring young people. There may be insurance issues, or perceptions about what young people are like, which may or may not be fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perceptions such as: They\u2019re always on their phones, or that they don\u2019t show up to work on time, or at all. <\/p>\n

Manny Rodriguez has a front-row seat for all this. He\u2019s the founder of Revolution Workshop<\/a>, a nonprofit on Chicago\u2019s South and West Sides that promotes skills training for young people in manufacturing and the trades.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez said that for years, he\u2019s watched kids become less engaged with sports, with employment opportunities \u2014 with anything that has them leaving the house and their screens. <\/p>\n

All this makes Revolution Workshop\u2019s job harder, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a problem when we\u2019re getting them right out of high school, trying to make them job-ready. Teaching them good work habits, what it is to hustle and communicate and how to take constructive criticism,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cAnd I would tell you with the trades \u2014 it\u2019s attendance. Just getting people to come on-site and stay off their phones.\u201d <\/p>\n

The decline in teen work is particularly damaging for the demographic groups Revolution Workshop is trying to serve. <\/p>\n

\u201cHaving fewer job opportunities is especially difficult for lower-income individuals,\u201d said Rutgers\u2019 Carl Van Horn. \u201cThey\u2019re stigmatized, they don\u2019t have the connections, they don\u2019t have the money. That disadvantages them.\u201d <\/p>\n

That means finding entry-level jobs, then move-up jobs, and eventually embarking on a career path, will likely start more slowly and take longer, reducing these workers\u2019 future earnings and retirement savings.<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is a pretty tough summer for young job-seekers. Outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas predicts this will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101,2802,23409,317433,317432,6075],"class_list":["post-738015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-labor-market","tag-summer-jobs","tag-teen-employment","tag-teen-workers","tag-young-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}