Teen struggle to find work
Megan Getter
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: News
In a tough economy, students looking for a job while still in college are facing difficult odds.
According to the Department of Labor Statistics, the teen unemployment rate was almost 28 percent in Oct. 2009, the highest in recorded history.
"Proportionally, more kids have lost jobs in the past few years than the entire country lost in the Great Depression," Andrew Sum, head of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University said in a Time magazine article.
Teens can't compete with an increasing pool of more experienced people searching for jobs.
"The part-time jobs that students were getting are now being taken by other folks who are also out of work, so there are less available jobs," Xuchitl Coso, Florida Southern College director of career development, said.
Kendra Haley, a sophomore, was a McDonald's manager back home in Michigan. She agrees that adults who usually would never apply are looking for a way to pay their bills. Now Haley is looking for a job in Lakeland that would help ease school expenses.
"I've started looking hard, but there's not many jobs for seasonal students," Haley said.
Shay Lessman, senior, is just one student with a job outside of FSC's work-study program.
"Local jobs are harder to come by because businesses are no longer hiring," Lessman said. "I've found that using Internet resources like Craigslist make it easy to find local positions, or in my case, online jobs."
The Career Center is one resource available to students who want help looking for a job. Students can get advice on select majors, internships, graduate school and a job. Visiting the Career Center is the first step for landing a job, said Coso.
"First [students] need a good résumé, and have excellent interview skills, secondly they need to be very open minded about where to work," Coso said. "A lot of students get very picky, but if they really need to work, they need to be very open minded and grab what is available."
According to the Department of Labor Statistics, the teen unemployment rate was almost 28 percent in Oct. 2009, the highest in recorded history.
"Proportionally, more kids have lost jobs in the past few years than the entire country lost in the Great Depression," Andrew Sum, head of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University said in a Time magazine article.
Teens can't compete with an increasing pool of more experienced people searching for jobs.
"The part-time jobs that students were getting are now being taken by other folks who are also out of work, so there are less available jobs," Xuchitl Coso, Florida Southern College director of career development, said.
Kendra Haley, a sophomore, was a McDonald's manager back home in Michigan. She agrees that adults who usually would never apply are looking for a way to pay their bills. Now Haley is looking for a job in Lakeland that would help ease school expenses.
"I've started looking hard, but there's not many jobs for seasonal students," Haley said.
Shay Lessman, senior, is just one student with a job outside of FSC's work-study program.
"Local jobs are harder to come by because businesses are no longer hiring," Lessman said. "I've found that using Internet resources like Craigslist make it easy to find local positions, or in my case, online jobs."
The Career Center is one resource available to students who want help looking for a job. Students can get advice on select majors, internships, graduate school and a job. Visiting the Career Center is the first step for landing a job, said Coso.
"First [students] need a good résumé, and have excellent interview skills, secondly they need to be very open minded about where to work," Coso said. "A lot of students get very picky, but if they really need to work, they need to be very open minded and grab what is available."
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