What happens when the traditional teen job disappears?
Luan Leao isn’t interested in flipping hamburgers or stocking shelves.
The 15-year-old Brazilian immigrant wanted to spend this summer at an internship in tech.
But even experienced engineers have struggled to find jobs amid widespread layoffs in the industry. A high school freshman with no work experience or connections?
Not a chance.
“The places I did find, I think they were looking for an older student who could spend more time,” Luan told Straight Arrow. “And this wasn’t their first job.”
So he created his own opportunity. Luan taught himself how to build websites and apps for businesses. One of his first clients was his mother, Stefania Leao, an influencer with 52,000 TikTok followers.
The app he built, ROAR, is an AI-powered virtual assistant that helps her save time by finding trending news topics and relevant hashtags and organizing her content calendar. Other creators and entrepreneurs took notice, so Luan now offers ROAR for $10 a month. He has already attracted about 100 customers, he said. Now that he’s on summer break, he hopes to devote more time to his work.
Young people are entering the worst job market for adolescents on record, according to executive coaching and outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which analyzed employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — worse even than the years following World War II or the recovery from the Great Recession.
Instead of waiting for employers to create opportunities, teens like Luan are creating their own. Straight Arrow spoke with teens who are launching startups, developing patent-pending medical devices and creating online content, as well as others who are opting out of the workforce entirely, choosing instead to focus on academics and sports.
As these opportunities provide an evolved version of a teen’s entry point into the working world, it remains to be seen whether entrepreneurship, competitive sports or passion projects can fully replace the lessons learned in a traditional first job.
Why don’t teen jobs look promising this summer?
In July 1989, the youth labor force participation rate — the percentage of Americans between 16 and 24 years old who search for or take summer jobs and graduates entering the labor market to secure a permanent job — was 77.5%. By July 2024, it had fallen to 60.4%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Several factors are driving the decline, said Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer at Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Rising fuel and inflation costs are driving up operating costs for restaurants, travel operators and retailers.
The National Restaurant Association reports that food and labor costs are up by roughly 35% over the past five years, even as customer traffic remains below pre-pandemic levels.
In the travel sector, prices are up 7.8% year over year, with airline fuel accounting for one-third of all airline operating costs, according to the U.S. Travel Association’s Travel Price Index. And retailers are concerned that higher sourcing expenses may impact their industry’s already thin profit margins, according to the National Retail Federation.
Thinner profit margins mean a thinner workforce.
While 28,000 seasonal jobs were added in the entertainment and leisure categories last year, only 8,261 jobs will be added this summer — a 70% drop from last year.
When jobs are scarcer, older employees often take on more part-time, seasonal and entry-level jobs that traditionally belong to teens, Challenger said.
The rising minimum wage is also shifting teen participation patterns, which is why Republican State Sen. Joe Nicola proposed lowering Missouri’s minimum wage for workers under 18 from $15 to $12.30 per hour.
“For small businesses, restaurants, grocery stores, local shops, labor is often the single largest expense,” Nicola said.
The bill didn’t leave Missouri’s Senate, but it’s a symptom of a bigger schism in who is able to find jobs. The Employment Policies Institute found that for every 10% increase in minimum wage, employment for Black and Hispanic teens falls around 6%.
Then there’s AI: Some research suggests AI could affect up to 27% of teen jobs by 2030.
Metaintro, a job search engine that analyzes more than 600 million job postings, has also recorded a decline in entry-level opportunities. CEO and co-founder Lacey Kaelani told Straight Arrow that this is likely due to automations such as self-checkouts and scheduling software.
“When an employer has an automated process with a fixed-cost model, they no longer consider it an opportunity to train someone for their first real job,” said Kaelani.
As fewer jobs are available to teens, Kaelani said she worries those most affected will be “lower-income teenagers who relied on summer earnings to pay their bills, not wealthy teenagers who use unpaid internships and structured extracurriculars to build their resumes.
“As AI takes over entry-level tasks,” she added, “the first entry-level positions are going to move higher up the career ladder and be held by people who had access to other forms of experience, rather than by people who needed a first paycheck to get started.”
The rise of the teen entrepreneur
Not every teen has the resources or flexibility to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. But many of the teens who spoke with Straight Arrow are finding alternative paths to gain experience and skills, and earn money.
Gavin Howard, 16, started saving for his dream truck five years ago by taking out his neighbors’ trash and running a photography business. Since then, he’s purchased multiple cars, even flipping one for profit. Another 16-year-old, Grant Lahman, created his own job cleaning pools.
Grant’s mother, Andrea Lahman, said he has set boundaries for his work based on the flexibility he wants. Potential new clients must fit within his preferred location and schedule.
Lahman told Straight Arrow she has tried to teach her two children “to be entrepreneurial instead of going and getting jobs.” This, she said, teaches them to be leaders, to create their own flexibility and to determine what they want.
Other kids are using AI and other tech to their advantage.
Ayushmaan Bellum, 15, monetized his first YouTube channel in fourth grade. Today, he runs a health-tech startup, mentors young robotics students and holds a patent-pending invention designed to detect skin health risks. And 16-year-old Zoe Auezov founded OurIBD, a startup developed through Harvard Ventures TECH, an AI-powered, non-invasive stool-monitoring device.
She wants to help people now, her mother, Amy Perez, said. Not wait until she “has an established career or a PhD.”
Are kids losing out on valuable skills by opting out of traditional jobs?
The drop in teens participating in the workforce can also be partially attributed to other factors, such as more demanding schedules. Charlotte Shaff said her teenage sons are so busy with academics and sports that they simply don’t have time for jobs.
Although she wishes her sons could find a way to balance work with their other commitments, she said she feels confident they are still gaining foundational skills by being motivated students and training hard as athletes.
But experts worry teens will miss out on other skills, such as learning to show up to work on time, managing difficult customers and dressing presentably.
“Those are lessons that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives,” said John Loyack, vice president of economic development at the North Carolina Community College System.
The future of teen work
Gen Z students tend to want jobs that offer flexibility, meaning and fulfillment, said Loyack. This means they may look beyond the four-year college path to apprenticeships, gap years and other nontraditional paths.
Whatever they choose to do, Loyack believes that good communication and basic leadership skills will be their key to success.
Rob Tillman, a business coach and keynote speaker, touts another important skill called “bridging” — clearly explaining to employers how existing skills will translate into success on the job.
Students must also be motivated to search for opportunities and follow up, said Laurie Kopp Weingarten, president and chief educational officer at One-Stop College Counseling.
“Many of the teenagers I work with assume that if an employer is interested, they’ll reach out,” she said. “However, some feel uncomfortable contacting employers themselves. They aren’t aware that checking in after applying can demonstrate maturity, initiative and genuine interest.”
Employers take notice when kids are go-getters, Loyack added.
But maybe that’s the point for teens—as the traditional job becomes harder to find, their drive to earn, learn and build something of their own may be the key proponents that launch their careers.
“In the future, when I do get a tech job, I already have the experience, and I’ll have an easier time,” Luan said.
Round out your reading
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- Researchers put chatbots in a simulation. Grok ended the world in 4 days.
- Fearing more e-bike injuries, Illinois looks to become 10th state to mandate registration, insurance.
- Why are young professionals facing such a tough job market? Hint: It’s not just AI.
- We’re building a new Straight Arrow. Help us shape our future by taking our survey.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
