For summer jobs, this will probably be the worst year since the Great Depression.No question that the chart Calculated Risk shows (16-24 year old unemployment) is ugly. As detailed above, the 19.6% is the highest rate on record, yet does compare closely with the 19% rate seen in November 1982 for 16-24 year olds. What is completely dislocated from the past is what we are currently seeing among 16-17 year olds (i.e. the high school [rather than college] working class).
This graph shows the unemployment rate for workers 16 to 24 years old (from the BLS), and the headline unemployment rate (blue). The unemployment rate hit a record 19.6% in April for this group.
While the unemployment rate among 16-17 year olds is 29.1% (from a 1980's peak of 27.1%), that rate is missing the fact that high school age kids quite simply are no longer bothering to look for jobs, thus are not counted in the unemployment rate. The following chart shows the percent of the 16-17 and 16-19 year old population employed as a percent of the population (the 16-17 year old employment levels have literally been halved over the last 10 years).
My concern regarding these unemployed teens is not necessarily related to their current situation (it sucks, but their consumption isn't dependent on their compensation - it is more broadly the "income" they are getting from their parents that matters). Rather, my concern is how this market will impact these workers over the long term. How many of "us" previous generations learned what it meant to "work" from these initial high school and college jobs (I was a painter, waiter at a diner, factory worker, lawn mower, and retirement community chef at various times before I turned 18)?
Source: BLS
These are scary numbers.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, I think you start learning the virtues of work at an early age. I've seen a few 'green thumbs' resumes (no employment, work history or internships) and it's not encouraging at all, seeing them in an interview is more discouraging. They seem well educated but socially awkward, very entitled, dismissive of their responsibility.
ReplyDeleteEliminating minimum wage would help at the margins.
ReplyDeleteThis scares me primarily because I expect to see a surge upward in the crime rate this summer, across all categories, in all parts of the country.
ReplyDeleteWe've long known that idle young men will get themselves into mischief.
Why dont these kids go to summer school?
ReplyDeleteOr go on vacations?
I for one would love to not work during the summer...more time to enjoy life.
Work really is over rated.
They will work for the rest of their lives. Enjoy not working and have youthful indesgresions.