Every year, thousands of American teenagers use their summer vacation as an opportunity to become camp counselors, lifeguards, tutors, hospitality workers, and babysitters for a few months, before starting the fall semester with more thickly lined pockets, some valuable work experience, and a tiny taste of the job fatigue that awaits them.
This summer is no exception: new labor force participation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 43.6% of US 16-19 year-olds were working or seeking employment in July, up from 33.8% in January. However, while that seasonal spike is observed annually, Gen Z have started to gently reverse the overall decline in the share of working teens seen in the past 2 decades... the source of much “kids these days don’t work like they used to” discourse.
Young money
Indeed, teen labor force participation has been slowly but steadily rising since 2013 — when Gen Z began to turn 16 — with the seasonally-adjusted share of teens either working or looking for work hitting a 14-year high in May. And, even if this uplift was only a correction to a pandemic-induced job squeeze, reported wage increases might spur more dramatic growth in youth employment in the coming months.
Data from payroll platform Gusto, per CNBC, found that the typical hourly wage for workers aged 15-19 years hit $15.68 in June, up more than 36% from the start of 2019 — outpacing the growth rate for workers of all ages on private payrolls, which climbed just under 27% across the same period, according to Fed data.
So, whisper it if you dare at your next family gathering: it’s never been more lucrative to be a teenager with a job in the US.
