What I Did On My Summer "Vacation"

When Erin Swiatek began looking for a job last summer, she scoured her neighborhood for employment, but found even the fast food restaurants in the area around her home weren’t hiring.

“[I applied] anywhere I could,” says Swiatek, an 18-year-old Erie High School graduate. “There was [sic] a lot of fast food restaurants that were near my house: Dominos, Pizza Hut, but no takers. Even at Target, they said they wouldn’t hire me or someone else had already taken [the position].”

Swiatek says even at these locations, many of the employees were older and she felt her age might have been a deterrent for the employers.

“I started to give up because they were only taking adults, and I was like, ‘Who would ever hire me? I’m just a kid,’” she says.

Swiatek’s experience is a common one for many youth aged 16 to 21 in Boulder County and across the nation: During the past three years, they are increasingly finding that jobs historically available for them, such as hospitality, food services and retail, are being taken by adults. Some are even calling this summer the most difficult yet in terms of youth employment opportunities.

They are gradually becoming the last hired and first fired in these areas as adults scramble to find employment in the wake of the recession.
~ from Summer of Our Discontent by Sarah Simmons ~

Back in my youth, summer was a time of great relaxation. It was a time to hang out with friends (though I personally had few of these) and to travel with my family. Some of my peers landed summer jobs -- I did as well a time or two -- but working teenagers in middle class families was not as ubiquitous as it is today.

When many of our local youth get back to school in the fall, they will report about a summer wasted. So many of them have given up looking for work because there are no jobs to be had. Just like the young woman in Metro Denver above, more and more jobs in this local area that once were available for teens and young adults are being snared by older adults.

As the job picture continues to look bleak, this trend will only get worse. Some time back, I read that some people contend that the unemployment rate for youth and adults under 25 is around 15-20 percent! Of course, if you are a young person AND a racial/ethnic minority, the rate is even higher.

What do our elected leaders think unemployed youth will do if Main Street continues to be starved of investment? Some youth with time on their hands will turn to substance abuse and others to mischief and/or crime. Since too few areas in this country offer youth meaningful and productive activities to wile away the days, many will invent their own strategies to stave off boredom...and poverty