AGENDA 21 RADIO

by Paul Bedard

Washington Examiner

Legal and illegal immigrants are “crowding out” American teens looking for summer jobs, and the impact of higher teen unemployment could be a drag on them for years, according to a new analysis of the seasonal workforce.

The Center for Immigration Studies found that as the number of U.S. teens with summer jobs has dropped significantly, employment of immigrants has doubled.

“Immigrants — legal and illegal — are crowding out U.S.-born teenagers in the labor market,” according to the report from Steven A. Camarota, director of research at CIS, and demographer Karen Zeigler.

In his analysis, Camarota found that employers are seizing on older immigrants, often over 20 and with some working experience, instead of U.S. teens to fill summer jobs. And another driving factor, he said, may be that immigrants are willing to work for a lower wage.

While good for immigrants, he cited research that it can be devastating for U.S. teens. Shut out of a summer job, they often have difficulty in the workforce for years.

“Teens employed in high school earn more than teens who did not work in the first year after graduation, with wage differences tending to increase over time. Also, teens who were employed in high school are more likely to be employed and work more hours during the year, with a significant relationship between hours worked in high school and subsequent hours worked and wages earned,” said the report.

What’s more, he added:

“Researchers have identified several reasons why working as a teenager creates so many short- and long-term benefits. Holding a job as a teenager seems to instill the habits and values that are helpful in finding or retaining gainful employment later in life. This may include showing up on time, following a supervisor’s directions, completing tasks, dealing politely with customers, and working hard. Learning good work habits and values seems to become much less likely without holding a job at a young age. Once a person who has little or no work experience reaches full adulthood, learning these skills seems to become more difficult. Other factors also may explain the benefits of early employment. Teenagers may gain social contacts on one job that provide them the opportunity to find their next job as their career develops. In some cases, teenagers may even acquire specific skills that make them more employable, such basic auto repair or learning to be a short-order cook. Whatever the reason for the benefits of teenage employment, they are large and long-lasting.”

Some key findings:

The current low rate of teen employment at 41 percent compares to 48 percent in the labor force in the summer of 2007 before the Great Recession, 61 percent in 2000, and 64 percent in 1994.

In the 10 states with the largest shares of immigrant workers, just 36 percent of U.S.-born teens were in the summer labor force.

The findings could play a role in the current immigration debate. While the media has focused on children trying to come across the U.S.-Mexico border, most making the legal and illegal passage are older, and it is those who are taking jobs younger American — and even immigrant — teens have had in the past.

Wrote Camarota, “The labor force participation of immigrant teenagers has also declined, though it was low even in the early 1990s. This, along with the similar decline for U.S.-born teens from all racial and income backgrounds, supports the idea that the arrival of so many adult immigrants, who often take jobs traditionally done by teenagers, crowds all teenagers out of the labor force, both U.S.-born and foreign-born.”