For over seven years, the US job market has been growing continuously, showing no signs of stopping. Both the Obama and Trump administrations have created more jobs at increasing rates, but now the job market is facing a big setback. More jobs does not mean more workers and currently, there is a severe labor shortage for US companies. With the era of the baby boomers coming to an end, the youth of America has stepped up. Now companies are looking to hire the younger generation for higher skilled work, but they are finding trouble to do so.
In 1978, nearly 60 percent of the teenagers aged of 16 to 19 were a part of the labor force. As of March 2018, the percentage is now 35.5. There are numerous factors for this difference. 1978 was just a few years after the Vietnam War, and the era of the baby boomers was in full swing. However, the discrepancy in teenage population does not completely account for the discrepancy of teenage employment. Teenagers seem to be less interested in working a part-time job along with their high school education. The pressure of high school, extracurriculars and college has driven away teenagers from part-time labor. This trend can be noticed from the 1970s and 80s. During those days, college and higher education was not a major priority. Blue collar labor and industrial jobs were the norm for many Americans. Times of changed and the increased number of white collar jobs has steered the youth of America in this direction.
However, employers have begun to take these teenage concerns into account. For example, employers have created schedules that work around students’ high school activities and commitments so he or she can handle both their school work and their part-time work. Pleasant Valley student Khaled Ismail has been working HyVee for almost a year. Ismail says he enjoys working there and the experience he gets will help in the long run. “Customer service skills are very important for people and working at a grocery store will certainly help one’s social skills,” said Ismail. Restaurants are the most common employers of teenagers, and the trend has continued for many years. Private work such as babysitting, lawn-mowing and other household work has been on the decline. Though the money will help pay for college tuition and the work experience is useful on a resume, teenagers are not attracted to these part-time jobs.
Employers are now offering higher level jobs to create greater incentives for the youth. Companies such as General Electric and Michelin North America are lowering the age and experience levels of certain positions so more teenagers will join. These companies hope some will choose to stay after high school and begin an apprenticeship or training course so they can move up the company ladder. Many people are concerned with this new strategy because they believe hiring inexperienced, in some cases immature, teenagers will result in lower quality products and less efficient output. Abigail Wozniak, a University of Notre Dame labor economist, argues against this assumption. She believes that technological advances made in society have enabled teenagers to have better technical and computer skills that make them them different the usual worker. Teenagers also have greater physical ability and stamina that may help in their labor.
Companies want to utilize this power of the youth to reduce the gap between job growth and labor shortage. With the economy growing and technology evolving, businesses are finding new ways to improve efficiency and quality of their products. Today, teenagers are working at grocery stores, country clubs and restaurants, but soon they could be innovating and inventing tomorrow’s technology.
