Red-hot summer job market awaits U.S. teens as employers sweat

  • 📰 PhillyInquirer
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 70 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 31%
  • Publisher: 68%

United States News News

United States United States Latest News,United States United States Headlines

This is expected to be the best summer job market for teens in 15 years.

WASHINGTON — Mary Jane Riva, CEO of the Pizza Factory, has a cautionary message for her customers this summer: Prepare to wait longer for your Hawaiian pie or calzone.

Among them is Samuel Castillo, a 19-year-old four-year veteran of Miami's Summer Jobs Connect program who's already built an impressive resume. In one former job with the program, he worked in a legislative office, registering constituent complaints. His first summer, he saved $900 to buy parts to build his own computer.

This year, for the first time in a couple of years, employers might get more help from overseas. After restricting immigration as a COVID-19 precaution, the government is beginning to loosen up: The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has raised the limit on H-2B temporary work permits — used for seasonal work — by 35,000 visas.

It was more than economic doldrums that kept teens away from work. Longer-term economic forces and changing personal choices contributed, too. The U.S. economy now offers fewer low-skill, entry-level jobs — ready-made for teens — than in the 1970s and 1980s. Many such jobs that do remain, from supermarket clerk to fast-food burger flipper, are increasingly likely to be taken by older workers, many of them immigrants.

Suddenly, teenagers are in much greater demand. And the pay available to them — $15 or $16 an hour for entry-level work — is drawing some back into the job market. Teenage employment has already topped pre-pandemic levels even though the overall job market still hasn't.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 81. in US

United States United States Latest News, United States United States Headlines