Teen job market is weak this summer

A New York Times article describes this summer's job market for teens as "weak":

School is out, and Aaron Stallings, his junior year of high school behind him, wanders the air-conditioned cocoon of the Woodland Hills Mall in search of a job.

Mr. Stallings, 18, says he has been looking for three months, burning gasoline to get to the mall, then filling out applications at stores selling skateboard T-shirts, beach sandals and baseball caps. He likes the idea of working amid the goods he covets. But so far, no offers.

“I’m going to go to Iraq and get a job,” he says acidly. “I hear they’ve got cheap gas.” He grins. “I’m just playing. But I’ve been all over, and nobody’s hiring. They just say, ‘We’ll call you tomorrow.’ And no one ever calls back.”

As the forces of economic downturn ripple widely across the United States, the job market of 2008 is shaping up as the weakest in more than half a century for teenagers looking for summer work, according to labor economists, government data and companies that hire young people.

This deterioration is jeopardizing what many experts consider a crucial beginning stage of working life, one that gives young people experience and confidence along with pocket money.

Little more than one-third of the 16- to 19-year-olds in the United States are likely to be employed this summer, the smallest share since the government began tracking teenage work in 1948, according to a research paper published by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. That is a sharp drop from the 45 percent level of teenage employment reached in 2000.

The rates among minority young people have been particularly low, with only 21 percent of African-Americans and 31 percent of Hispanics from the ages of 16 to 19 employed last summer, according to the Labor Department.

(New York Times photo)

Final episodes of "The Paper" set for tonight

The final episodes of MTV's "The Paper," a program about the ups and downs of a high school newspaper are scheduled to air today at 9 and 9:30 p.m.:

"The Paper" chronicles the staff of the Circuit, the student newspaper at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Fla. The first episode introduced us to a half dozen new seniors who all wanted the top job of editor-in-chief for the year. The chosen one: Amanda. And they all hate her.

Fortunately, "The Paper" is cleverly edited and quite lively. That first episode was more "The Office" than "The Apprentice." It's a documentary, not a game show; there's no prize awarded in the final episode. So none of the characters seems to have an agenda or to be playing too much to the cameras --except the often hilarious moments when Amanda is alone, performing impressions to herself or philosophizing to her dog.

These are teenagers, anyway. (What outside world?) And they're normal teens, at that -- this is not "Laguna Beach." These kids have pimples and run for student leadership and worry about their schoolwork and talk behind each other's backs. OK, so last week's episode showed three of the guys at a spa exfoliating before the homecoming dance. Maybe MTV paid for that, or maybe that's what 17-year-old geeks do in south Florida. The beauty of "The Paper," though, is that most of its moments have a ring of truth I'm not sure I've yet encountered in reality TV.

Complete episodes are available at MTV.com.