Victor Perez defies the statistics.<\/p>\n
Despite near record high unemployment for teens, this nineteen year old\u00a0works as a swing manager at a McDonald’s restaurant in the New York City borough of The Bronx.\u00a0 Victor admits he\u2019s \u201clucky to have this job.\u201d He said many customers his age ask not only for a hamburger, but an employment application as well.<\/p>\n
According to the latest statistics teen unemployment in the United States is nearly triple the overall rate at 27.1 percent. The figure peaked in October at 27.6, a 61 year high.<\/p>\n
When it comes to finding work experts say teens more than any other age group have been hardest hit by the recession. On an industry basis nearly a quarter of all teens work in the food preparation business.<\/p>\n
Economists cite several reasons for the high teen unemployment rate. Most frequently they blame the recession that resulted in older workers squeezing out younger job applicants. According to New York University Stern, Economics Professor Joseph Foudy, \u201cyouths obviously have less experience in the job market.\u201d\u00a0 Foudy said teens are \u201cthe first to lose work\u201d during difficult times.<\/p>\n
Teens not only have to compete with retirees forced to return to work, but with recent college graduates who unable to find work in their field of study increasingly take lower paying jobs.<\/p>\n
Some economists argue that a recent increase in the minimum wage also contributed to the high rate of teen unemployment. Last July the federal minimum wage increased from $6.55 to $7.25. Over the next two months 330 thousand teen jobs were lost.<\/p>\n
Lack of jobs\u00a0will make it difficult for many teens to afford college or an education beyond high school. Experts say the lack of job experience will also hurt teens later in life. Some studies show teens with job experience have better employment prospects as adults. McDonald\u2019s New York Region, Vice President, Steve Kerley says the chain teaches teen workers \u201cto be part of a team, to work with the public.” He said they learn \u201clife skills they can take with them, regardless of where their careers may lead.\u201d<\/p>\n
After working at McDonald’s since he was 16, Victor Perez agrees. He said college is too costly to consider and for now he is planning a career at the restaurant chain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Victor Perez defies the statistics. Despite near record high unemployment for teens, this nineteen year old\u00a0works as a swing manager at a McDonald’s restaurant in the New York City borough of The Bronx.\u00a0 Victor admits he\u2019s \u201clucky to have this job.\u201d He said many customers his age ask not only for a hamburger, but an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4748,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4748"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}