Do Young Workers Still Have Summer Jobs?

Summer employment for young workers also provides a crucial source of labor for employers in need of part-time and seasonal positions.

But that may be changing as young workers’ employment in the summer months has trended downward over the last 20 years, failing to fully recover from the early 2000's recession and Great Recession.

Summer employment peaks for young workers have changed over time.

Although the 14-18 age cohort consistently exhibits the largest increases between spring and summer employment (third quarter minus second quarter), the magnitude of these increases fluctuates with external economic shocks, such as the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Going into the Great Recession, the percentage increase from the second quarter to the third quarter dropped to its lowest level in the time series (Figure 2).

After the recession, the summer employment boom for those ages 14-18 recovered quickly (after an increase of only 8% in 2009) to 17% in 2010 and a consistent percentage increase in the low 20’s from 2012-2017.

Although summer employment and overall employment levels for young workers have rebounded over the last decade, they are still lower than before the Great Recession.

Compare that trend with other age groups over this time period and the divergence of older and younger workers’ employment levels since the third quarter of 2000 is stark.

Older workers, particularly workers ages 55-64 and 65-99, comprise an increasing share of the employed population (Figure 3).

Interestingly, employment levels for workers ages 14-18 dropped the most during the Great Recession. Summer employment for the youngest workers fell substantially in 2008 and 2009 and has not recovered as quickly as for older age groups.

How do these trends differ at the state level?

The top 10 states for share of employment for workers ages 14-18 over the last 20 years are South Dakota, Utah, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana.

These states are diverse in terms of where they rank for population share under the age of 18 as of 2019 — South Dakota, Utah, Nebraska, and Idaho rank in the top 10, while Montana and Wisconsin are in the bottom half of states.

Summer youth employment in North Dakota weathered the Great Recession better than other states, perhaps due to employment opportunities during the Bakken oil boom (Figure 4).

But employment has not kept pace with other states’ growth since 2015. Contrast that with Idaho and Utah, where youth employment was significantly impacted by the Great Recession but has increased dramatically in the last decade.

Youth summer employment in Idaho, Utah, and Montana appear to have been impacted the least by the COVID-19 pandemic, as of the third quarter of 2021.

What youth earn for working over the summer varies by state.

Average monthly earnings for young workers for the 10 most recent third quarters (2011-2020) show that the District of Columbia, California, Washington, Oregon, and Nevada offer the highest earnings for young workers (Figure 5).

Young workers employed in states in the Midwest and South had the lowest summer earnings over this time period.

Employment as of July 1 in the Retail Trade and Accommodation and Food Services sectors dwarf other industries in its share of young worker employment (Figure 6).

How do summer earnings for workers ages 14-18 vary by industry?

Workers ages 14-18 in Mining, Quarrying and Oil/Gas Extraction earned the most in the third quarter, followed by Construction (Figure 8). Note the Mining industry accounted for less than 0.1% of third quarter youth employment over this period for this age group, while Construction accounted for almost 3%.