Teen Job Crisis

By Venetea Dosty, Clarion Staff reporter

I’m not sure if  every student has been having this problem, but the jobs we have in the community all seem to be taken or at least jobs truly meant for teens. 

I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, but what are 15-22 year olds supposed to do when in need of a job?

Since about a year ago or two ago, jobs would rather hire a 30-year-old or even 50-year-old instead of a 16- or even 18-year-old.

Why does this happen? 

My personal take on this is that they choose to hire older people because they know they're gonna do the job no matter what they're paid, and because they probably just don't want a teen working for them. Since the people they hire are older, they most likely don't have to do new training – unlike a 16-year-old. Employers would most likely have to train teens for 2-3 days and then hope they continue to do the job right – meanwhile an older person already has more experience in work environments since they've been working since 16 or whatever age they started working at.

Some fast food places that hopefully hire teens are Chipotle, Wingstop, L&L Hawaiian BBQ. Since the usual fast food jobs teens would apply to are taken, they could take the time to apply to more places – like a community center that has after school programs for kids or a school that has an after school program other jobs actually willing to hire teens are parks for clean up, summer camps for a junior camp counselor, concession stands at parks, 5 Below, places that have animals like an animal shelter or Pet Smart dog walking services, and community pools, lifeguarding.

Many job seekers use the indeed portal, described by the company as connecting "millions of people to new opportunities."

Ways to actually find employment include the popular job portal, indeed. To get jobs at parks and snack shacks, go to the City of Sacramento's webpage -- or any app you use to search things up and the jobs are all gonna come up.