Teen job market down

I'm sure it's somewhat regional. My volleyball kids have been looking and not finding. I mean, anyone will give you an app, but it doesn't mean they're going to call you.

I am 17 years old and would gladly take a theme park job. However, we don't have any major parks in South Florida (No, Boomers doesn't count). Many places around here advertise that they are hiring, but as someone mentioned previously, there are many age restrictions, and in some cases additional experience requirements.

Those places that do hire teens end up with hundreds of applications to sift through. The most popular seem to be the grocery stores and malls. My friends who work generally only got there job after applying to a few dozen places. They also end up working on weekends during the school year to keep a decent wage, even though most of them only wanted a summer job in the first place.

I also took the Paramount survey that Sarah Jackson mentioned in her post. Its nice to see that they care about trying to attract teens. They realize that they need us to help run their parks, even though much of society has written us off as lazy.

Now I feel somewhat old. ;-)

I am thinking back to my high school and college jobs and how easy they were to obtain....VERY easy. Some were fun, most of them were crappy, but it was money and experience.

Still, if so many places are hiring around my hometown why are they not being filled? Other than certain laws regarding employment under the age of 18, what kind of screening process are they doing with teenagers applying for summer jobs/first jobs? I am curious.

Working as a teenager means you usually work weekends and holidays unless you are really lucky, however most retail/fast food jobs are flexible and will work around schedules...or has that become more restrictive?

-Tina

*** Edited 5/17/2004 12:31:44 AM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

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coasterqueenTRN said:

Working as a teenager means you usually work weekends and holidays unless you are really lucky, however most retail/fast food jobs are flexible and will work around schedules...or has that become more restrictive?

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*** Edited 5/17/2004 12:31:44 AM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

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Ha! Weekends and Holidays? Yes, I am a teenager so I will take a stand here. Last summer, after being hired at McDonalds, they put me working 35-38 hours a week. Oh don't forget, I was only 15 last summer and asked for no more than 25 hrs a week. Then once school rolls around, they had to let me go because I was too busy and could only work weekends.

Then, just last week, I was let go again this time from Best Buy because I could only work weekends until school let out. I told them this when I first got the job. Obviously, they didn't comprehend what I was saying because they now claim they wouldn't have hired me in the first place if that were the case. Crap. Lemme tell ya.

With the world now, it IS much harder for teens to get a job, and they are much more restrictive on your hours. Flexibility is about the biggest load of crap I've heard in a long time. Supposedly they were at Best Buy. If Flexibility means firing some one after you agreed to hours, then yes, businesses are very flexible today.

Sorry, I just had to go on a rant. But the fact is, times have changed. It is much harder.