A dog-eat-dog job market for teens

     Even as the economy added 280,000 jobs in May, the unemployment rate for teenagers remained 17.9 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
     The overall unemployment rate remained a solid 5.5 percent, neither gaining nor losing ground from the month before.
     Jobs were added in professional and business services, an area unlikely to hire teens. But possibilities remain in another area -- leisure and hospitality. Those fields added 57,000 jobs in May. The bureau reported 29,000 jobs were added in arts, entertainment and recreation. But an area where teens typically find employment -- food services and drinking places -- has shown little change.
     On the upside, Gallup.com reported in May that U.S. workers between 18 and 29 are “significantly more likely than older workers” to say they are working for companies that are hiring.
     Gallup reported that 52 percent of these younger workers said their employer was “hiring new people and expanding the size of its workforce,” an additional 34 percent said that their employer was not changing the workforce's size and only 9 percent said their employer was “letting people go and reducing the workforce size.”
     Older workers were not so upbeat. Among those ages 30 to 49, 42 percent said their employer was hiring, 40 percent said their employer was not changing the workforce's size and 13 percent said their employer was reducing its workforce.
     The organization concluded that one possible explanation is that young people believe their employer is hiring because they are likely to be fresh hires. And beyond that, younger people tend to be more positive about the economy, Gallup reported.
     According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report from 2014, July is the summertime peak in youth employment.

     Related:

     Job growth continues as economy rebuilds

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