WHERE ARE ALL THE SUMMER JOBS?

Posted by: Cathy Arnst on June 18

I sometimes think that one of my best work experiences in a long career was my first job, as a waitress at the Pinewood Diner in my hometown (Portville, NY, you can’t get there from anywhere). I started working at the Pinewood the summer after my junior year of high school and kept the job until I left for college a year later. The owner was a harsh taskmaster, but I still loved working there, in part because a fellow waitress was one of my best friends, Cherie, who got me the job (I still owe you, girl). It was at the Pinewood that I learned the thrill of a paycheck, the rewards (i.e. tips) of a job well-done, how to make a killer milk shake, and a huge repertoire of country-western songs (the only music on the juke box). The most valuable lesson, however, was how to be a responsible employee, a skill that I think can only be gained on the job.

Sadly, a lot of teenagers today aren’t getting the same opportunities. Researchers at Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies report that the national teen employment rate for January through May was 33.1%, the lowest its been in 60 years, and teen employment in May fell for the fifth consecutive month. Last summer the employment rate for African-American teens from low income families was only 18%.

Those numbers don’t bode well for the future. As Bob Herbert, a columnist for the New York Times, wrote on Saturday:

This is the flip side of the American dream. Kids who grow up poor and never work at a regular job tend not to think in terms of postgraduate degrees, marriages and honeymoons, careers and the cost of educating the next generation.
A steady job could make all the difference. Along with the paycheck comes a sense of the possibilities. Kids develop a clearer understanding of the value of education and are more likely to stay in school. The heightened sense of self-worth that comes from gainful employment can be a bulwark against negative peer pressure. Contacts are made and a work history established.
“The more you work today, the more you’re going to work tomorrow,” said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies. “And the more you work while you’re in school, the easier it is to transition to the labor market when you graduate.”

I agree completely. My first job laid the groundwork for all the ones that followed. And without that first job, and all the other waitress jobs I held afterwards, I never would have been able to afford college, my ticket to a job in journalism—a career I really do value more than waiting tables, even if I don’t get to work with Cherie.

I don’t know what the answer is, but if anyone has some thoughts, please share. And let us know about your summer job; it might inspire some teenager, or the parent of one, to look for the same thing.

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