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The summer job as we once knew it has become somewhat of an archaic concept. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,the number of teens and young adults looking for employment declined steadily throughout the 90's and 00's from a tall of 77.5 percent in 1989 to 60 percent this year. Additionally, according to Census data from the 1970s, and 1980s,and early 1990s, around 55 percent of 16-to 19- year-olds were employed each July. In 2014, or that number was fewer than 35 percent were.
There are those who are quick to call the youth of nowadays "lazy" compared to past generations,but for some young adults it's not that simple.
Over 5 million American young people that are making the transition from teenager to adult are neither working nor in school. And these young adultsmay be lost out on learning an well-known set of skills that arrive along with that first job.
Sarah Burd-Sharps, co-director of Measure of America, or a project of the Social Science Research Council,joins us to talk about what it takes for these disconnected youth to land that first job.
The labor force participation rate for all youth was 60.0 percent in July 2015, miniature changed from a year earlier. The summer labor force participation rate of youth has held fairly steady since July 2010, and after generally trending downward for many years. The summer youth labor force participation rate peaked at 77.5 percent in July 1989.
(Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Source: wnyc.org