Are the Kids Alright?
By 
I mentioned to Loomis the other day that both of my fourteen year old kids are making more in inflation adjusted dollars (one at a retirement home, one at a hydroponics farm) that we were making at the University of Oregon Instructional Media Center in 1992. Apparently teen summer work is making a big comeback:
Job prospects were bleak for teens (and many adults) in the summer of 2020. But in 2021, as a gusher of government checks, a.k.a. “stimmies,” flowed through the economy and the “Great Resignation” was in full swing, teen workers were suddenly in high demand. Many adults were quitting gigs to move to higher-paid ones or, having been laid off, were waiting to find a good job while flush unemployment checks supported them. Hospitality bosses, in particular, were desperate for laborers—so desperate that they were willing to pay inexperienced teens to come in and work. The pattern has continued in the years since: A persistently tight labor market means that workers are still needed—and inflation means that teens both want and need more money. (Demand for summer workers is down from last year but still well above where it was in 2019.)
As the hometown summer job flourishes, the corporate summer internship is flagging. Nick Bunker, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told me that he’s noticed a real disparity in job postings: Compared with pre-pandemic levels, general demand is higher for traditional seasonal jobs such as summer-camp counselors—but not for for internships in corporate, white-collar settings.
Because teens are plugging holes in the broader workforce, the new teen summer job is not only better-paid than those of generations past; it may also come with more responsibility. Now, in addition to the classic entry-level seasonal fare—think: lifeguard—teens are getting hired for jobs that previously went to more experienced workers—think: retail manager. “We’ve seen employers rediscover teenagers,” Alicia Sasser Modestino, an economist at Northeastern University, told me, adding that some employers are bringing back teens for repeated summers and giving them more responsibility each year.
Insert Maddie and Connor joke here. Also something something inflation something.