This is a pretty tough summer for young job-seekers. Outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas predicts this will be the worst summer for teen hiring in the nearly 80 years that BLS has been gathering the data.
The unemployment rate among 16-to-19-year-olds has been ticking up steadily in recent years— from 10.3% in May 2023, to 14.7% in May 2026.
Meanwhile, there’s been another change with teen participation in the labor market over many decades — fewer of them have been working or looking for work.
In the 1980s, about two out of three teenagers had paid work in the summer, according to BLS’s data on labor force participation, which is not seasonally adjusted. In recent years, that’s down to around one in three.
The long-running decline in teen employment has consequences for young people, their parents, and U.S. employers…
“All things being equal, you’d rather hire a somewhat older person,” said Carl Van Horn, director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. “There’s queasiness or concern on the part of some employers about hiring young people. There may be insurance issues, or perceptions about what young people are like, which may or may not be fair.”
Perceptions such as: They’re always on their phones, or that they don’t show up to work on time, or at all…
“Having fewer job opportunities is especially difficult for lower-income individuals,” said Rutgers’ Carl Van Horn. “They’re stigmatized, they don’t have the connections, they don’t have the money. That disadvantages them.”
That means finding entry-level jobs, then move-up jobs, and eventually embarking on a career path, will likely start more slowly and take longer, reducing these workers’ future earnings and retirement savings.