Jobless teens told: Keep at it, build connections

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Helen Hernandez's 16-year-old son has applied to some 30 White Plains businesses for a summer job with no luck.

His sister is having an even harder time, since she's 15 and no one seems to be hiring kids that age.

"It's not for financial need, thank God. We're OK," Hernandez said. "But kids these days ... need to be in a place where they're being held accountable for their performance and actions, not being graded by a teacher or working for mommy and daddy doing chores. It's about work ethic."

Despite recent reports that the unemployment rate is dropping, people between ages 16 and 19 are still finding it hard to nail down a job. The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics says 27.3% of workers in that age bracket are unemployed, compared with a national unemployment rate of around 6%.

The Center for American Progress, a nonprofit civil advocacy organization, says youth unemployment is at an all-time high. Because potential earnings are often tied to experience, a teen who misses out on a job at this stage could end up making less money than peers in the long run, its researchers said.

Summer, usually a wide-open field for teens looking for temporary work, has turned out to be a bust. Brandon Fields, who recently turned 20, said he began looking for summer work in January. One potential employer offered him a job but put his resume on hold when he had to go back to State University of New York at Oswego. Now back home in White Plains, he's called the employer several times without a response. He's looking around and finding the prospects grim.

"There's definitely fewer jobs, and not only that, there's competition," he said. "Back in the day ... teenagers, young adults, would work at Playland or Target or Walmart. Now you see people twice your age working there."

"It's been tough the last few years," concurred Marianne McCarney-Haesche, assistant director of the Rockland County Youth Bureau, especially for high school kids who usually don't start looking for jobs until school is out, a good month after college kids get into the market.

It's enough to make a kid give up in disgust.

But they shouldn't, the experts say.

"The thing is, it's all about setting goals ... having a sense of direction," said Frank Williams, director of the White Plains Youth Bureau. "I've had so many kids that told me their employment helped them to define what they wanted to be in their future. If you have never worked, how can you decide what you want to do or not do?"

Roseanne Amoils of Larchmont is a job coach who works Tuesdays at the Yonkers Public Library helping people find work. She's seen how hard it is to find employment, especially since many youngsters who do find a job do it with the help of their parents.

If a job is not available, she suggested that teens begin gathering evidence of their ability to do hard work. Volunteering gets a teen into a place where he or she is meeting people from different backgrounds and different ages and assume some responsibility, she said.

She also suggested team sports or arts lessons. Not only can a teen make networking connections within a team or other group, but he or she can use sports or the arts as a way to connect with a potential employer. Sports, music and the arts require discipline, and speak to a teen's passion, their ability to stick with something difficult and take orders.

"Those things, they define a work ethic," Amoils said.