With a driver’s permit in hand and a desire to work, Amherst teenager Cady Bestor is confident that for part of the summer she’ll have a job, getting both experience in the workplace and money for spending or saving.
But with the school year ending in just a few weeks, Bestor, 16, doesn’t yet have a job lined up.
“I’ve been searching for work for a while but haven’t figured out how to apply and put myself out there,” Bestor said.
Bestor was among about a dozen teens who attended a recent panel discussion at the Amherst Survival Center, in which representatives from Big Y Supermarket in Amherst and a fellow high school student offered tips about applying for jobs, completing resumes and having a successful interview.
Even with this sort of assistance, along with other workshops throughout the region and school guidance counselors, it can remain difficult for teenagers to find jobs, said Jim Parcells, director of planning and youth programs for the Franklin-Hampshire Career Center in Greenfield.
“Teenagers are still behind other age cohorts,” Parcells said. “Whenever there is a recession, teens get left behind.”
Parcells said just 25 to 30 percent of teens are employed at any given time during the year, compared to 15 years ago, when about half of all teens had jobs. But this changed during the Great Recession of 2008, and has yet to fully rebound.
Holly Kosisky, assistant director of youth programs for Community Action, said Community Action can help youth with job searches that gets them in the door of a job. But it also has collaborations with schools, including one called “Summer Jobs and Beyond” that is placing 60 youths in summer jobs in Ware, Orange and Turners Falls.
A report from the Commonwealth Corp., which puts together workforce programs in Massachusetts, gives hope for teen job hunters. That report states that “employment prospects for teens in Massachusetts for the summer months of 2017 are expected to be better than earlier years, particularly in the context of an overall low unemployment rate in the state and tightening labor market.”
Matt Rigney, youth and adult program coordinator for the Northampton-based Collaborative for Educational Services, said besides the economy, which has caused adults to snag some jobs once reserved for youth, teens have also been affected by changes in rules and regulations that prohibit their involvement.
Still, Rigney said there are opportunities for those who are motivated.
“Teens needs to hustle. If slots are not filled, they will be quickly,” Rigney said.