The job market has been getting tighter for all workers, but it's becoming especially hard for those who are trying to get their first paychecks.
The unemployment rate for working-age teens rose to 20.3 percent in July, the U.S. Department of Labor disclosed late last week. That's almost four times the overall 5.7 percent unemployment rate, and a big leap up from the already elevated 15.3 percent rate among teens a year ago.
Economists are reporting "the demise of the summer job" and saying this is the worst season in more than 60 years for those ages 16 to 19 who want or need to work.
Alison Slowes knows firsthand. She started a summer job search when she got home from Brandeis University in mid-May, beginning with boutiques where she thought it would be fun to work, then broadening the search to Target, Michaels and other national chains.
No one wanted a student who could work for only a few months, she said.
"I got several where I was talking to someone and we were thinking of an interview, and I said, 'You know I have to go back to school in August,' and they were like, 'Oh, never mind,'" said Slowes, 20.
While jobs are becoming harder to come by for everyone, they are particularly short in industries that have been mainstays for teen jobs - retail, hospitality and construction.
There's also more competition from older workers, and it's simpler for employers to hire one older person for 30 hours of work a week than two teens who can't commit to more than 15 hours each.
The price of gas also has become a factor.
Nowhere in the article is the 500 pound gorilla mentioned: the increases in the minimum wage last year and this year is an obvious factor, but it's only mentioned once, and that's on the supply side.
"It's true all over the state, but especially in rural communities, where people tend to drive 10 or 20 miles to the closest retail center or big town," said Lee Egerstrom, economics fellow at MN2020, a St. Paul-based think tank that concentrates on small business and rural development. "If you're going to work a whole day at minimum wage, your take-home pay may not get you more than a tank of gas."
You can't ignore the demand side. Increasing the minimum wage makes it more costly to hire unskilled workers (in industries such as the retail and hospitality industries, two industries which, noted by the article, have been hard hit). Even if they wanted to work, they wouldn't be employed if employers weren't willing and able to hire them.
But for those who feel it necessary for teens to be, effectively, indentured servants, there is good news:
If there's a silver lining, it's that unemployed teens have time for volunteer work, said John Budd, a labor economist at the University of Minnesota and father of a high school senior who is now tutoring at an elementary school.
"It wasn't his first choice, and frankly we hadn't thought about it, either," Budd said. "But he couldn't find a summer job, and this is turning out to be a really good experience for him."
I find it odd that some would consider forcing others into second-best alternatives to be a silver lining. Moreover, in a slowing economy, increases in the minimum wage only work to further slow the economy and push up unemployment.