By Jocelyn Espinosa
The lack of employment in teens has increased. Teenagers start working in order to get extra money for college and that leads to, “25% of teens being unemployed late,” according to High Teen Unemployment Molding “Lost Gen” from National Public Radio.
A problem to the teens that want to start working to get money for their own expenses. Teenagers nowadays want money to start buying their own stuff without having to ask their parents, yet some might not look for a job anytime soon.
Teenagers that are fifteen already start wanting to work because they want to buy stuff like the new airpods or items that their parents won’t buy them because its expensive.
Teenager rates have been plummeting since the 2000s and 35 % work to help with food on the table even though that is a parent’s job, according to Making the case for a higher minimum wage from the Milken Institute.
Teenagers don’t look for jobs because of school extracurriculars and they are busy getting ready for college. There is also the fact that competition is brutal and every teen is trying to get a job, so it's hard to get hired, according to High Teen Unemployment Molding “Lost Gen,” from National Public Radio.
According to, “Why many teens no longer even look for a summer job,” by Jonathan Berr, teens looking for jobs have gone down by 50% since the mid- 1990’s. Along with there being a decrease of 34.8% for people looking for work.
It’s not even just teens that no longer look for jobs but adults as well and that is due to the minimum wage in some areas that don’t give a good pay.
Then we have parents that believe a teens first job is an important milestone in their life because it prepares them for the “real world.” In which the real world it can be pretty difficult to live in especially with costing in housing rising.
Gabriella Villagomez, a nineteen-year-old who had her first job at seventeen believes that a person's first job is important.
She says, “You get a sense of adulthood I guess you can say. You learn how to save your money and how to spend it on important things you need and not stuff that is useless.”
When I asked her why she thinks that most stores only hired 16+ employees she answered: “I think it's because the employer probably thinks that anyone younger is still a little bit immature.”
According to, “Youth Unemployment Is Down, but Are Young People Actually Working?,” “A long trail of research shows that these policies reduce employers' incentive to hire relatively low-skilled workers.”
From the same article (“Youth Unemployment Is Down, but Are Young People Actually Working?”): “Research also shows that minimum-wage diktats hinder low-skilled workers' employment opportunities going forward by making it hard for them to get their foot in the door of a job in the first place. This is especially true for teens from minority groups.”
That means that the lack of employment comes from the increase in the minimum wage that discourages employers from hiring workers with little experience.
Of course we have first timers that are looking for jobs so it’s only right for stores to hire them even if they do have little experience because they need to start somewhere before they can get the hang of the work life.
Gabriella wanted to start working because “[she] needed the money and I didn’t want to keep asking my parents for money since I was already 17” even though her parents weren’t pressuring her. Yet it is common that parents don’t pressure their kids to get a job.
Teenagers also don’t work because of how much they get paid. Gabriella let me know that she got paid about $12.05 an hour and since she was in school they only let her work part-time which still wasn’t enough for her.
She worked at most three days a week and about 4 hours each day since her being in school didn’t allow her to work more.
Lack of employment in teens is something that is not decreasing over time but instead increasing since employers don’t want to hire teenagers.
The lack of employment in teens has increased. Teenagers start working in order to get extra money for college and that leads to, “25% of teens being unemployed late,” according to High Teen Unemployment Molding “Lost Gen” from National Public Radio.
A problem to the teens that want to start working to get money for their own expenses. Teenagers nowadays want money to start buying their own stuff without having to ask their parents, yet some might not look for a job anytime soon.
Teenagers that are fifteen already start wanting to work because they want to buy stuff like the new airpods or items that their parents won’t buy them because its expensive.
Teenager rates have been plummeting since the 2000s and 35 % work to help with food on the table even though that is a parent’s job, according to Making the case for a higher minimum wage from the Milken Institute.
Teenagers don’t look for jobs because of school extracurriculars and they are busy getting ready for college. There is also the fact that competition is brutal and every teen is trying to get a job, so it's hard to get hired, according to High Teen Unemployment Molding “Lost Gen,” from National Public Radio.
According to, “Why many teens no longer even look for a summer job,” by Jonathan Berr, teens looking for jobs have gone down by 50% since the mid- 1990’s. Along with there being a decrease of 34.8% for people looking for work.
It’s not even just teens that no longer look for jobs but adults as well and that is due to the minimum wage in some areas that don’t give a good pay.
Then we have parents that believe a teens first job is an important milestone in their life because it prepares them for the “real world.” In which the real world it can be pretty difficult to live in especially with costing in housing rising.
Gabriella Villagomez, a nineteen-year-old who had her first job at seventeen believes that a person's first job is important.
She says, “You get a sense of adulthood I guess you can say. You learn how to save your money and how to spend it on important things you need and not stuff that is useless.”
When I asked her why she thinks that most stores only hired 16+ employees she answered: “I think it's because the employer probably thinks that anyone younger is still a little bit immature.”
According to, “Youth Unemployment Is Down, but Are Young People Actually Working?,” “A long trail of research shows that these policies reduce employers' incentive to hire relatively low-skilled workers.”
From the same article (“Youth Unemployment Is Down, but Are Young People Actually Working?”): “Research also shows that minimum-wage diktats hinder low-skilled workers' employment opportunities going forward by making it hard for them to get their foot in the door of a job in the first place. This is especially true for teens from minority groups.”
That means that the lack of employment comes from the increase in the minimum wage that discourages employers from hiring workers with little experience.
Of course we have first timers that are looking for jobs so it’s only right for stores to hire them even if they do have little experience because they need to start somewhere before they can get the hang of the work life.
Gabriella wanted to start working because “[she] needed the money and I didn’t want to keep asking my parents for money since I was already 17” even though her parents weren’t pressuring her. Yet it is common that parents don’t pressure their kids to get a job.
Teenagers also don’t work because of how much they get paid. Gabriella let me know that she got paid about $12.05 an hour and since she was in school they only let her work part-time which still wasn’t enough for her.
She worked at most three days a week and about 4 hours each day since her being in school didn’t allow her to work more.
Lack of employment in teens is something that is not decreasing over time but instead increasing since employers don’t want to hire teenagers.