Jobs For Teens and Young Adults Still Hard To Find

Summer jobs are in short supply for teens nationwide and in Minnesota.

Some studies show fewer than one in three teens will work this summer. Oriane Casale with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) says unemployment rates for teens nationally are approximately 25 percent. Minnesota is slightly better at 20 percent.

"There are a lot of teens looking for jobs and not finding them," Casale says.

Professor David Vang of the Opus School of Business at the University of St. Thomas says this summer's teen jobless rate is the worst in years.

"This is probably going to be one of the tougher years that teens have experienced since World War II," he said.

Casale from DEED suggests teens struggling to find work look to two sectors: food service and manufacturing. According to Casale, turnover in food service is high and jobs once unavailable can re-open, and manufacturing is currently a growth sector of the economy.

Vang says a teen without a summer job should volunteer, not only to gain valuable work skills, but also to prevent gaps in their resume.

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