Why did teenagers stop getting jobs?

[Ed Anger]

So is Chris DeGarmo of Queensryche, but he does it exclusively as his only job.

You know, after hearing bits of that last Queensryche album, I think he chose wisely.

[Ideologue]

So is David Gilmour, of Pink Floyd.

So was Randy Rhoads.

I think you're mistaken. 

Gilmour is a hobbyist.

This is true.  By his own admission, he is an earth-bound misfit.

[garbon]

Unless those old folks are working flipping burgers and the like, I doubt their increased participation is seriously affecting the ability of HS kids to get jobs ... 

Indirectly, perhaps?  Take any given profession (lawyer, doctor, whatever), where there is a certain demand for personnel.  If old folks stay in their positions longer, and demand does not go up, then the value of new professionals goes down.  They have to seek employment at a level below what they were expecting and what they had trained for, and being more highly qualified will tend edge out people with bachelor's degrees, who in turn edge out high school grads, who in turn edge out high school students.

I mean, I don't know if this is at all the case, but it does make sense.

Maybe but there is also the flipside that people who have been around a while keep getting raises and eventually are more expensive than a new hire who needs a little breaking in.

[Ideologue]

Is it written that raises must be granted?

[garbon]

Is it written that raises must be granted?

I've no idea but in a lot of jobs people might leave to seek them elsewhere.

[DontSayBanana]

I think you're mistaken. 

Whoops.  I think you're right.

[dps]

I just noticed in your reposting of that graph that the two lines are, in fact, based on unrelated scales with different ratios.  The superimposition of them isn't an honest one.  Boooo! 

Yeah, it appears that the vertical scale on the left is the participation rate for teens, while the vertical scale on the right is the rate for senoirs.  Which means that comparted to the peaks and valleys for teens, the line for seniors is a much gentler curve, even more than it appears to be.

I had noticed this before, but didn't point it out 'cause A) the participation rate for seniors isn't reallly the point, and B) I figured that most people noticed.

[Josquius]

Old people have experience and more of a developed work ethic. When you're just hiring them to do a job and don't care about keeping them in the long term they're the logical option.
At my old job, traditionally the domain of teenagers, they've certainly switched onto hiring more retirees these days..

I guess this is linked in to the rising quality of life and the retirement age still being where it has always been. It used to be people who retired and were in their late 60s were pretty much done, just waiting to die. Now however they can be rather healthy and doing nothing grows boring for them, hence they look for a little job to earn a bit of extra money...the sort of job students should be taking.

[Caliga]

I've no idea but in a lot of jobs people might leave to seek them elsewhere.

[grumbler]

Is it written that raises must be granted?

I've no idea but in a lot of jobs people might leave to seek them elsewhere.

Then the problem is self-correcting.  Win-win.

[viper37]

It does say "participation rate".  Labor participation rate is the percentage of teens out of the whole teen population that are either employed, or want to be employed.  Part time employment counts as employment.
[...]
The proportion of teens working in the global work market?

The source is BLS, so it has be American statistics.
[/quote]
I meant if it included only full time job, not part time job, obivously it was for the USA.

Anyway, I found the relevant article and as I suspected, it's a simple case of stats presentation.
http://www.bls.gov/opub/ils/pdf/opbils49.pdf

The text cannot be copied, but it explains a methodology change in their surveys from 1994 and on, wich created a gross overstatement of people enrolled in school.  People having one summer class were considered unemployed, even if they had a part-time or full time job.

[DGuller]

How can people with a job be considered unemployed?  Do you actually mean that those people were considered to not be participating in the labor force?