Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Part I Introduction
- Part II The Changing Context of Youth Transitions
- Part III Variations in Education and Employment Transitions during Times of Economic Hardship
- 5 Young People's Experiences of Employment and Unemployment across Europe: Evidence from the EU- SILC
- 6 Structural Advantages, Personal Capacities, and Young Adult Functioning during the Great Recession
- 7 The Vanishing Teenage Worker in the United States
- 8 Education and Employment Transitions in Germany before and after the Financial Crisis
- 9 Labor Market Entry in Germany before and after the Financial Crisis: An Analysis of Duration of Labor Market Entry, Quality of First Job, and Fixed- Term Employment
- Part IV The Impact of the Great Recession on Families
- Part V Future Orientations and Well-being
- Part VI Conclusion
- Index
- References
7 - The Vanishing Teenage Worker in the United States
from Part III - Variations in Education and Employment Transitions during Times of Economic Hardship
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 October 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Part I Introduction
- Part II The Changing Context of Youth Transitions
- Part III Variations in Education and Employment Transitions during Times of Economic Hardship
- 5 Young People's Experiences of Employment and Unemployment across Europe: Evidence from the EU- SILC
- 6 Structural Advantages, Personal Capacities, and Young Adult Functioning during the Great Recession
- 7 The Vanishing Teenage Worker in the United States
- 8 Education and Employment Transitions in Germany before and after the Financial Crisis
- 9 Labor Market Entry in Germany before and after the Financial Crisis: An Analysis of Duration of Labor Market Entry, Quality of First Job, and Fixed- Term Employment
- Part IV The Impact of the Great Recession on Families
- Part V Future Orientations and Well-being
- Part VI Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
Abstract
Whereas just twenty years ago holding a part-time job while in full-time education was considered a rite of passage among teenagers in the United States, youth nowadays are much less likely to be employed while attending school. Is the drop in school-year employment among US teenagers, especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession, a cause for concern? In this chapter, we use data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to assess whether work experiences during the school year adversely affect early educational and socioeconomic outcomes such as test scores, time spent on homework and extracurricular activities, career aspirations, and educational expectations. Results confirm a sharp decline in teenage employment during the school year, as only 46 percent of youth had worked by the spring of the 11th grade. Among working teenagers, those who averaged intensive hours during the school year (i.e., more than twenty hours per week; about 11 percent of youth) had significantly lower test scores and educational expectations compared to their nonworking counterparts. However, youth who worked moderately showed no significant declines in socioeconomic achievement and in fact were more likely to participate in extracurricular activities and spend more time doing homework than their nonworking peers. Furthermore, teens who worked intensively were less likely than nonworking youth to be uncertain about their future career plans. These positive effects of work will be lost if teenage employment in the USA continues to disappear.
Introduction
Working while in full-time education was once a rite of passage among teenagers in the USA. Previous longitudinal studies of US adolescents coming of age during the 1980s and 1990s (e.g., National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, National Educational Longitudinal Survey, Youth Development Study) revealed that approximately 80 to 90 percent of teenagers worked at some point before the end of secondary school (National Research Council 1998). Today, US teenagers are much less likely to hold paid jobs while attending school than in years past (Staff et al. 2014). In 1992, for instance, according to cohort data from the senior high school-based Monitoring the Future study, approximately 42 percent of 8th and 10th graders and 74 percent of 12th graders held a paid job during the school year.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Young People's Development and the Great RecessionUncertain Transitions and Precarious Futures, pp. 154 - 176Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2017
References
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