Generations X, Y, & Z Blog

What do Warren Buffett, Walt Disney and Ross Perot all have in common? Besides being iconic American businessmen, all three have newspaper carrier on their boyhood résumés. But don't bother looking for leaders of tomorrow's corporate America to be walking down your block at dawn: Your newspaper carrier today is most likely an adult in a car.

As recently as 1990, nearly 70% of newspaper carriers in the U.S. were teens. But that number dropped to 18% in 2004, and more declines are likely, according to the Newspaper Association of America.

The end of the boyhood (or girlhood) paper route reflects a dramatic but little-noticed trend: Teen unemployment has hit historic highs in the last three years.

How is this possible? Employers are desperate for people they can hire and train and there's ample opportunity to fill these slots with Generation Y (ages 13-25), the largest generation in American history. Yet we're in the midst of the lowest teen market penetration in 50 years.

According to data gathered for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 37% of teens nationwide worked in the summer of 2006 -- nearly 11% fewer than were working in 1989.

Are teens working less because they are too busy with their MySpace pages, disdainful of teen job opportunities, or just plain lazy? Employers are quick to support such theories, but there is no data to back them up.

The fact is, in the last six years employers have hired more immigrants and workers 55 and older than teens.

For the summer of 2006, according to the labor bureau statistics, teens had an unemployment rate of 16.5% -- four times higher than that of adults during the same period. Labor analysts explain that if adult employment fell by the same rate teen employment has in the last 10 years, it would be greatest job loss in American history since the Depression.

Should employers care about these trends? Why not continue to bypass teens in favor of immigrants, older workers, or even workers in other countries?

Because America's private sector needs a succession plan.

Many employers feel their efforts to reach and understand Generation Y have been frustrating and fruitless, and hiring older workers is an easier route. But doing what's easier isn't the same as doing what's best.

We're already seeing the fallout of overlooking the teen workforce.

Recent studies show that entry-level employees, including graduates of four-year colleges, are lacking critical workforce skills, such as written communications, leadership skills, professionalism, and problem-solving.

Employers site Gen Y's lack of work ethics as the cause, when in fact as teens they didn't have the employment opportunities of previous generations because employers refused to hire them.

Furthermore, while business leaders have encouraged schools to do more work-readiness training, the federal No Child Left Behind policy has put a new emphasis on testing and achievement standards. As a result, vocational programs have fallen out of fashion and many students--with the encouragement of parents--are delaying work experience to focus on academics.

Obviously, the current pattern of 'educate now, employ later' is not working. Our high-tech, fast-moving economy demands the expertise of an educated and prepared workforce.

American teens need the opportunity to gain critical skills from early work experiences--not to mention that without widespread teen employment, the future of our workforce will be compromised.

True, Generation Y brings new expectations (and challenges) to a traditional workforce. As the most nurtured, protected, and provided for generation in history, they want ample feedback, increasing responsibilities, the respect and attention of their managers, access to technology, flex-time, and the opportunity to share their opinions.

True, they aren't as likely to pursue jobs they perceive as being redudant or meaningless, and they willingly leave jobs that offer no opportunities for advancement and employers who treat them as peons.

But today's teens were raised during an era when everyone on the soccer team received trophies. They were raised with technology and video gaming and few have had to answer to a 'boss'.

While they are high-achieving, multi-tasking, media-savvy, tech-savvy, globally-minded and diverse, today's teens need jobs to learn from adults other than their teachers or parents. They need jobs to experience all the joys and frustrations of work, including acceptance, goal-setting, teamwork, constructive criticism, and failure.

How can the United States continue to compete in a global economy if the entering workforce is made up of graduates who lack the skills they need? Is 'adequate' good enough?

Adequate is certainly not acceptable when you are competing in a global economy that's driven by innovation and technology and facing a massive exodus of workers. By 2010, 40% of our workforce will be eligible to retire. Every business and industry will be scrambling to fill its ranks with qualified employees.

And it's our responsibility, as businesses, associations, schools, and non-profits, to make sure immigrants and people over the age of 55 aren't the only ones qualified for the jobs.

Labels: educate now employ later, Generation Y, hiring trends, Newspaper Association of America, No Child Left Behind, teen unemployment