Welcome Back Teenagers!
Welcome Back Teenagers!
In the late 1970’s, nearly 60% of teenagers (aged 16-19) held a job. For the next forty years, that percentage steadily declined. It bottomed out in 2010 when only 25% of millennial teens held a job. Gen Z is turning that trend around. Thirty-seven percent of teenagers are currently working or looking for a job.
In a recent Washington Post article looking at the Department of Labor statistics, (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/01/21/teen-jobs-pandemic-wages/), one of the main reasons teens in the workforce had been declining has been the increased burden of high school requirements – which forced teenagers to put more time and effort into their homework. Add to that the expectations of college entrance exams or the competition of getting into a top-notch college, and students were left with no time to pick up a part-time or summer job.
What has changed now? The after-effects of COVID have had a big impact. Employers rebounding after shuttering during the pandemic found it hard to hire back their original employees, who had moved on. They discovered a pool of workers that they had previously ignored – teenagers. The teens after COVID were also restless – remote learning; lack of socialization; rising college costs; rising costs of everything. Finding a job was easy. The money was nice and certainly helped, but getting a job also gave them what the teenagers of the 70’s knew — FREEDOM! Freedom to gain work skills; freedom to explore new opportunities; freedom to spend your own money; and freedom from being in the grip of your parents’ pocketbooks.
Congratulations to today’s teenagers. Enjoy, flourish, prosper.
