“While many employers already completed the process of interviewing and hiring for seasonal positions, this does not mean that those still wanting jobs should give up. Some employers may need more workers than they expected; others may have delayed hiring; and some may have discovered that one or more of those hired early were not a good fit,” says John Challenger, chief executive officer of global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, Inc.
“The point is, you never know if or when a job opening is going to materialize, so you want to keep pushing to ensure that you are in the right place if one does,” he says.
The outlook on the summer job market for teenagers released by Challenger in March was not very optimistic. However, since March, large seasonal hiring plans were announced by several employers, including McDonald’s, Home Depot and Lowe’s.
“Teen job seekers will definitely need help from the private sector. We still see a shortage of job opportunities for teens in the cash-strapped public sector, where taxpayer-funded park districts, public swimming pools, beaches, camps, etc., are likely to cut back on seasonal hiring,” says Mr. Challenger.
Last year, teen job seekers experienced the weakest summer job market in decades. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that from May through July employment among 16- to 19-year-olds increased by just 960,000 jobs. That was down 17.5 percent from 2009, when teen employment grew by 1,163,000.
The 960,000 summer jobs filled by teens represents the lowest level of summer hiring since 1949, when teen employment increased by 932,000 during the summer months. In contrast, employers hired more than 1.7 million teenagers during the summer of 2006, bringing total employment for this age group to 7,494,000 in July, which historically represents the annual peak of teen employment.
