A recent report by the Center for Labor Market Studies at NortheasternUniversity sheds light on the shrinking job market for teenagers. In the report it states that "the teen employment rate last year was only 34.8%, the lowest annual average employment rate for teens ever recorded since the end of World War II." The following is an excerpt:
"The success of teens in finding any type of job last year, however, differed considerably across schooling, race-ethnic and household income group. Those teens from low income families (incomes under $20,000) who were Black or Hispanic fared the worse in the U.S. labor markets. For example, only 19% of low income Black teens worked during 2007 versus nearly one-half of their more affluent White counterparts living in families with incomes above $60,000."Check out the rest of the article here.
Besides fast food jobs, and those at grocery stores, where else can teens look for jobs? Think about it, if the jobs aren't there teens, especially those in low-income communities, will create their own jobs (ie. the drug market) to survive amongst the shortage. What are your thoughts on how this shrinking job market is effecting teenagers especially minorities and those from low-income communities?
2 comments:
I wonder if there is a correlation between the increase in Latinos immigrating to the US and the lack of teenager jobs. Jobs like McDonald's are being occupied not by just Latino teens but Latino adults who are looking for their opportunity to survive in the US, which takes away the opportunity from Black teens.
I disagree with the comment above. Too often Blacks and Latinos fall for the "divide and conquer" mentality that our capitalist society perpetuates. In fact, we are all dealing with the same struggle. Think of the job market as a whole pie and it's cut up into different slices. If the working class job market is one slice of the pie we shouldn't spend time fighting over a piece of that one slice, we should be fighting those who are cutting the pie and giving us that small slice to begin with.
Blacks and Latinos are dealing with many of the same issues: high school drop-out rates, high incarceration rates, high poverty, lack of affordable housing, and the list goes on. If we continue to perpetuate the divide and conquer mentality then we will never progress.
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