Summer Jobs Sizzle, but Where Are the Teens?
In the scorching heat of the summer job market, small and seasonal businesses are feeling a chill as they search for teen workers to fill crucial roles.
Outplacement firm Challenger Gray predicts that teens will snatch up 1.1 million jobs in 2023, a slight dip from last year and the lowest forecast since 2011. While teens have rallied to pre-pandemic work levels this spring, there’s a twist – many of those eager teen workers are already part of the workforce.
According to the June jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for teens aged 16 to 19 nudged up to 11%, and the labor participation rate slipped to 36.3% from 42.9% in June 2022.
For businesses like Grotto Pizza, which heavily relies on teen workers, this poses a challenge. Glenn Byrum, the hiring manager, shared that teens make up nearly a third of their 1,100-strong workforce across 20 locations in Delaware and Maryland. Although they’re currently well-staffed for the summer, he notes that teen hiring is always a process.
“They are a critical piece of our success,” Byrum emphasized, highlighting the role of younger workers and J-1 visa employees in staffing seasonal beach locations.
Describing the mindset of young workers, Byrum noted their awareness of job flexibility, pay rates, and the work environment. With abundant summer job opportunities, teens have the luxury of choice.
“If they don’t like something that employers ask them to do, even though it’s part of the job, they can easily go down the street and work somewhere else and find an alternate employment with the same wages or maybe even better,” he explained. “So it just keeps us on our toes as far as making sure that we’re providing the best work environment we can.”
To attract teen talent, Grotto often starts them above minimum wage and offers incentives for flexibility, allowing some to move between locations based on seasonal demand. As the summer job hunt unfolds, businesses are learning to keep up with the changing tides of teen expectations and opportunities.
