Young Teens And Summer Jobs

By Tom Sheridan

Summer is upon us and teens are out looking for jobs in force. Unfortunately, this might be the one year that jobs for teens may be scarce. The economy has dealt a blow to many businesses and they are laying off workers by the handful. Even younger teens need the money now and they are trying to get jobs for the very first time. This poses the question whether ages- and-- are really too young to be working?

The US government has a set of laws that lays the groundwork for what kind of jobs teens can get and at what age they can get those jobs. For instance, any job that is considered dangerous or hazardous cannot be performed by anyone younger than 16 years old. Jobs involving heavy machinery and chemicals would fall into this category. Once you are 16 or older, you might be allowed to do some of those jobs or all of them. Additionally, each state has its own set of rules that need to be followed concerning child employment.

When you are a teen it is scary to go out and try to get your first job. Now with the recession in full force, jobs for teenagers are even harder to find than they were before. On top of that, more teens this year will probably need jobs because their parents might cut their allowances or they might need the money to help out the family. It is a bad situation for everyone as employers are losing business and can't afford to hire the teens they once did.

Very young teens will probably not qualify for many real jobs and most of them will probably be snapped up very quickly. This year, older teens and even adults may be happy to get any job they can and will take jobs that they might ordinarily have turned down in other years. This means younger teens will have to think of other ways to make money by perhaps doing odd jobs around the neighborhood such as pet sitting and weeding.

The summer is already upon us and those that have been looking for jobs for a while might have gotten lucky and found someone to hire them. If you are just starting your job search, you should know that your chances are probably not too good and you will have to be patient. This might be one of the hardest summers in a long while for teenagers to find work and hopefully the economic environment will turn around soon. - 31376

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