In Our View: Evolution of Summer Jobs

There is much value to be found in spending a summer scooping ice cream or stocking grocery store shelves or picking fruit. Generations of American teens have gleaned life lessons and work experience from traditional seasonal jobs, learning responsibility and money management and the all-important skill of customer service.

Anybody who has worked in the retail industry, for example, can share stories of unreasonable patrons and the difficulty of embracing the idea that “the customer is always right” — a mantra that reportedly dates to 1909 and a London department store.

Yet, while we agree with the benefits of summer employment for teens, we also recognize the changing economy that has altered employment options for young workers. According to a recent report from the Associated Press, 57 percent of Americans ages 16 to 19 were employed in July 1986. That percentage remained above 50 percent until 2002, but by last year it had dipped to 36 percent.

One major factor is that jobs traditionally taken by teens often are filled by adults these days. Experts point to growth in the number of low-skilled immigrants, a population that works later in life, and increases to the minimum wage as factors that reduce seasonal employment for teens. Each of those boosts the number of adults seeking jobs formerly filled by young workers. A study by Drexel University found that in 2000-01, teens accounted for 12 percent of retail workers; by 2016, that number was 7 percent. In the restaurant and hotel industries, the percentage of teen employees fell from 21 percent to 16 percent.

Indeed, there is a tendency to lament this trend. As the Associated Press report details: “Economists and labor market observers worry that falling teen employment will deprive them of valuable work experience and of opportunities to encounter people of different ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds.” Locally, Sharon Pesut of Partners in Careers told The Columbian in May: “Where those jobs used to be plentiful, those are now few and far between. The kids really need to do their research. It’s not as simple as dropping off a r?sum? anymore.”

At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that fewer and fewer teens are seeking summer jobs. No, this is not the result of a lazy generation that would rather sit on the couch and play video games; it is the result of a generation that is busier than ever. Teens are more inclined to seek summer educational opportunities, fill their schedules with sports, volunteer for r?sum?-building endeavors, travel with their families, or attend summer camps. As Derek Thompson wrote last month for The Atlantic: “Education is to blame, rather than indolence. … The percent of recent high-school graduates enrolled in college — both two-year and four-year — has grown by 25 percentage points.”

Thompson also details a rise in unpaid internships, in which teens are working but are not counted among the labor force.

As with any economic trend, the issue of teen employment is complex, and it was exacerbated by the Great Recession of the past decade. The recovery has come largely in the sector of low-skilled, low-wage jobs, increasing the likelihood of adults filling jobs formerly open to youngsters.

Summer employment for teens is, indeed, valuable. But the loss of summer jobs does not necessarily reflect a loss of the American work ethic or a changing generation. Instead, it reflects unavoidable alterations in the nation’s economic structure.