Why did teenagers stop getting jobs?

[MadImmortalMan]

I did my crap jobs in university.

I did also, but I think Max and Stoney's point is a good one. Lots of people are coming out of college with no idea how to operate in the non-academic world. I don't know if you'd call it street smarts or whatever, but the disconnect is akin to people who never travel anywhere and assume everywhere else is like where they live, making assumptions about the nature of things based on a limited frame of exposure. Academia has different rules, and lots of kids stumble badly when they hit the transition. Better to dip in a little at a time, gradually increasing that exposure so that you can be functional on your own than to just jump in and drown from the shock. Plus, if you fuck up, it doesn't wreck your life like Max said.

[Malthus]

Is this trend a bad thing?  Children should be children, there will be plenty of time for work later on in life.

Childhood is for learning what you need to know for life while the stakes aren't so high.

Absolutely.  It's also when you learn that life has privileges and responsibilities.  Teaching kids the value of a dollar earned as opposed to a dollar given is important.  I never appreciated how hard my parents worked until I got my first job at age 15.  It was an eye opening experience and one that all kids should have. 

You learn work ethic at an early age.  If you go into the workforce for the first time after college and you have no specialized degree, you're going in with unrealistic expectations.  You've never done that entry level menial job with no appreciation and little monetary reward.   Everyone should wash dishes or wait tables or work construction for a summer or two.  Builds character.

The fear, whether well-founded or not, is that this "character building" construction or table-waiting job could easily morph into little Jimmy's full-time occupation, as Jimmy appreciates the cash and respect that having a job entails, forms his friendships with other construction workers and table-waiters (who have far more adult real-life experience than his callow schoolchums), does worse in school than his jobless peers because his after-school time is spent working rather than studying, and decides school is just a waste of his time.

It's the old deferred-gratification problem. A job does give instant gratification in terms of money and self-respect it is true, but it can make putting up with years of schooling to possibly get an even better career option that much more difficult (or conversely, can demonstrate the horrors of manual labour and thus cause folks to value their education!)

Many of the people I knew who had jobs in HS stayed doing those types of jobs thereafter. Dunno if that is cause-and-effect though -- most middle-class or above type people no longer positively require their kids to work at such joe-jobs (what they require is that their kids do stuff to pad their future resumes).

[The Brain]

Most Americans will get crap jobs after university. Why hurry?

[The Brain]

I did my crap jobs in university.

I did also, but I think Max and Stoney's point is a good one. Lots of people are coming out of college with no idea how to operate in the non-academic world. I don't know if you'd call it street smarts or whatever, but the disconnect is akin to people who never travel anywhere and assume everywhere else is like where they live, making assumptions about the nature of things based on a limited frame of exposure. Academia has different rules, and lots of kids stumble badly when they hit the transition.

That's why you have military service.

[Josephus]

Most Americans will get crap jobs after university. Why hurry?

IF they're lucky,

[crazy canuck]

Many of the people I knew who had jobs in HS stayed doing those types of jobs thereafter. Dunno if that is cause-and-effect though -- most middle-class or above type people no longer positively require their kids to work at such joe-jobs (what they require is that their kids do stuff to pad their future resumes).

The people who would be satisfied with crap jobs are also going to have problems studying for 4 or more years in University in the hope of obtaining a good job.  The problem of delayed gratification doesnt go away.  In my case having crap jobs before and during University motivated me to do well in University.  There was definitely a causal relationship.

But the situation with my kids will be different.  They will not have to work as I did.  They will have the opportunity to spend their time doing other things.  The issue is how will they spend that time.  If they want to simply lay about then I will go all Stonewall on their ass.  But if they use their time for productive ends then I will let them be.  I hope I have instilled in them the motivation to do that.

The thing is this generation and the possibilities open to it are much different than when I was growing up.  I do not know enough to prejudge what they should be doing.  So I dont think I should arbitrarily say you must get a crap job like I did, its the only way!  They may well find a better way than I did.  At least that is the hope.  Those were after all really crappy jobs.

[Martinus]

They've gotten so spoiled their parents don't make them work to get pocket money?

I never understood that sentiment. I never worked until I was 22, but then I got the best job of anyone I knew at the time. My friends who worked through their teenage years usually ended up with shitty, low-paying jobs.

People who force their teenage children to work are failures as parents. If you are so crap, you can't earn enough money to pay for your children growing up, at least admit it and don't try to build an ideology around it.

[grumbler]

I used to think that the reason for fewer teens getting jobs was that typical homework assignments had gotten so much more onerous (and research has shown that to be the case), but recent studies I have seen indicate that only about 60% of high school students do any homework on a typical night! 

I am now tending to agree with Stoney et al that it is the fact that parents enable their kids to have money without earning it that is responsible.

[crazy canuck]

I used to think that the reason for fewer teens getting jobs was that typical homework assignments had gotten so much more onerous (and research has shown that to be the case), but recent studies I have seen indicate that only about 60% of high school students do any homework on a typical night! 

Around here there is a significant movement to decrease the homework load based and the premise that more homework doesnt make a better educated student - just a more tired student.

[DontSayBanana]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned rising employer expectations for entry-level positions without expanded education.  Even a job managing a Burger King or a Gamestop is nigh impossible to get without a bachelor's degree these days.  Also, state restrictions on employment of minors have knocked them out of areas like deli or seafood clerking at grocery stores (in NJ, aside from farm work, about the only things a minor can operate are cash registers and walkie-talkies).

[The Brain]

Yes. You have to be 18 to work with plutonium.

[crazy canuck]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned rising employer expectations for entry-level positions without expanded education.  Even a job managing a Burger King or a Gamestop is nigh impossible to get without a bachelor's degree these days. 

A manager is not an entry level position.  The people the manager manages at a Burger King or Gamestop are entry level employees.

[crazy canuck]

Yes. You have to be 18 to work with plutonium.

I miss the good old days when anyone could do it. Damn regulations!

[MadImmortalMan]

I worked at Rax but I wasn't allowed to use the meat slicer until I turned 18. 

[DontSayBanana]

A manager is not an entry level position.  The people the manager manages at a Burger King or Gamestop are entry level employees.

True, but on the other hand, along parallel lines to the farm argument, historically, kids worked in family businesses- we're at a point where family-owned small business are a dying breed; non-family small businesses and larger family-owned businesses are heavily pressured not to hire relatives or minors.  The big corporations holding onto the bulk of the entry-level jobs are at the same time loathe to work around student schedules- around here, BJ's has actually told interviewees that they will not accomodate students in scheduling and that they'll just have to quit when school begins again.

DISCLAIMER: That may be a local anomaly; education in Cumberland County is atrocious, so there's an oversaturation of GED-holders and high school dropouts who will be perfectly content to take the entry-level jobs.  When I say "atrocious," I mean 21% of 4th-graders passing state tests, 21% of 8th graders, and 20% of 11th-graders.