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Teen Employment at Highest Level Since Great Recession

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Teen employment has been trending downward over the past few decades. Many believe that this trend is because teens are now juggling more sports, extracurriculars, volunteer work, tutoring for high-stakes testing, and unpaid internships - all in hopes of appearing well-rounded for colleges. Even summer employment has been declining for teens in the United States for decades. 

National data tell us that the Great Recession had a clear effect on teen employment, as companies simply weren't hiring. Even now that we're in a boom, the teen employment rate is still not back to pre-recession levels, but as of 2017, it was the highest since then.   

Source: Esri's analysis of U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 1-year Estimates, Table B14005

Teen employment is often responsive to minimum wage changes, which have taken place in several locations in recent years. The minimum wage does not explain the whole story though, as some places with low minimum wages also have very high teen employment rates and vice versa. Cost of living, academic ambitions, and competition for these jobs from older workers all play a large role as well.

Teen Employment Rate

The biggest reason that teen employment has been falling throughout the decades is because youth are staying in school!

Working While Studying

While most 16-19 year-olds are in school only, over 4.1 million youth worked while in school in 2017, 28% of youth who are students.

The map below shows the most predominant combination of youth school and work activity by county.  Zoom in to your city & see tracts.

Are Youth Learning, Earning, Both, or Neither?

What the data do not tell us is which activity is more central to their lives - do they consider themselves students who also work, or workers who also study?

Differences in Teen Employment by Sex

National teen employment rate in 2017 was 31.8 percent, and slightly higher for female youth than male youth. Employment rate for teens in school was higher for female youth, whereas the employment rate for teens not in school was higher for male youth.

Source: Esri's analysis of U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 2017 1-year Estimates, Table B14005


How Can I Use This for My Community?


By knowing the school and work activity of youth in a given area, state and local agencies can:

Identify labor surplus areas where there are people available for hiring and training.

Plan educational services including staffing needs, building needs, and program needs.

Inform where to promote educational and workforce development programs including college recruitment efforts, job fairs, and training programs.

Historical data from this source (Table B14005 from the American Community Survey) can also be used to evaluate how effective state, county, and local programs to engage youth were by doing a pre- and post-program analysis.

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