It’s a teenage wasteland out there. At least when it comes to employment for those starting out in the job market.
“What’s important is that we seem not to be shocked by these teenage numbers, but historically they are very high,” says Michael Saltsman, a fellow of the Economic Policy Institute, who noted that New York City is doing worse than the rest of the nation.
EPI places the national teenage unemployment rate at 24.5 percent and locally at 32.1 percent. It warns that these high numbers have become persistent, with many teenagers giving up on the idea of a part-time job.
The economic malaise since 2008 has perhaps created a lost generation of sons and daughters missing out on career growth and development because of their inability to get a first job.
“The analysis reveals no evidence of detrimental effects of low-to-moderate amounts of student employment. To the contrary, job-holding in the senior year is associated with substantially elevated future economic attainment, whether the latter is measured by earnings, wages, occupational status or the receipt of fringe benefits,” said economist Christopher Ruhm.
Ruhm wrote in a paper on high school employment that “jobs held during senior year yield substantial and lasting benefits.” Seniors who worked part time, he added, “are expected to earn approximately 21 percent more annually, six to nine years later, and to receive 11 percent higher hourly wages than their counterparts who did not work.”
The EPI numbers are about the same as those given by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which is part of the US Labor Department. BLS numbers city teenage unemployment at 33.9 percent at the end of May, according to spokeswoman Rachel Friedman. The state youth job misery number was 30.4 percent, BLS said.
A spokesman for the New York City Department of Youth & Community Development conceded the numbers are difficult. But he noted that they have gone down about 3 to 4 percent since last year, owing to city programs.
“The city’s summer youth employment is making a difference,” said Andrew Doba. He said the program, which provides private-sector and public-sector employment to young people, should hit the 30,000 mark this year.
However, two years ago it was able to employ about 20,000 more young people.
“State and federal cutbacks have affected us,” Doba said.