Teen unemployment hits an all-time high in Utah

Utah teens are more likely to be unemployed if they stay in the state this summer, as experienced workers take entry-level jobs from an already abundant youth group seeking summer employment.

Utah unemployment for 16- to 19-year-olds reached 26.2 percent during the first quarter, according to the Department of Workforce Services, up from the 2009 rate of 21 percent. That compares to the national teen unemployment rate of 24.7 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Teens "don't have many skills to offer, and there are many skilled workers willing to work those lower-paying jobs today," said Mark Knold, an economist at the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

"They (teens) don't have an education or work experience, and it's bad enough in good times, but when you're in this kind of environment, where more experienced workers are taking teen jobs, it's hard to place teens."

While the unemployment rate is typically higher for teens than adults, this year will hit teens harder than ever before because of the already strained job market, and the teen unemployment rate continues to climb. In 2007 the national teen unemployment rate was 10.8 percent before rising each year to 19.1 percent last summer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

With the decline of the economy, the rate has been climbing. And teens are having a hard time keep pace with their adult counterparts.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 31.2 percent of the population in Utah is under 18, compared to the 24.3 percent nationwide.

"We just have more teens," Knold said.

Teens looking for employment are often met with rejection from possible employers, said LeAnn Saldivar, president of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Salt Lake, which works to help prepare teens for employment.

Feedback from teens, Saldivar said, suggest that applicants getting hired for the jobs teens apply to, are older, more skilled workers. Shannara Shamo, 17, has found it difficult to land a job, especially when many jobs are looking for employees 18 and older.

"There was this one job that I met all the requirements for, except age, it's frustrating," Shamo said. In this particular job Shamo was interested in, employees would be working with the elderly, which requires them to be at least 18.

Shamo didn't pay much attention to the rate of pay, as her concern was to just get a job and "with your first job you usually just get minimum wage anyway," Shamo said.