Fewer teens choose, have chance for employment

Want your teens to learn accountability, grit and the ability to handle adversity?

Get them summer jobs.

They'll learn how to manage things they don't necessarily like and experience that may last them a lifetime.

They'll also have a leg up on the competition.

Even more of an advantage than in years before, as it turns out.

Only 156,000 teens age 16 to 19 got jobs in May, down 14 percent from last year, according to the Challenger, Gray & Christmas career outplacement firm. And, last year's number was nearly 11 percent lower than the year before.

It's a trend that's been continuing since the 1970s, when more than half of teenagers worked summer jobs. Today, it's fewer than one in three, according to the Pew Research Center.

Some of the old incentives to work have disappeared -- teens are less anxious to get drivers licenses and cars because much of their social life takes place on their smartphones instead of dragging main, and work interferes with videogame time.

Agriculture is increasingly automated and many traditional farm jobs have disappeared.

Restaurants and retail outlets don't need as many workers as in years past to meet seasonal demand, and there are a limited number of jobs at summer camps, swimming pools and amusement parks to go around.

The push for a $15 minimum wage certainly won't open up more jobs for beginning workers who need training to become the mainstays of tomorrow's workforce.

Kids who simply choose not to work are not necessarily lazy, however. Athletes who are serious about their sports spend much of their summer attending or volunteering with sports camps.

Others may find fulfillment and valuable experience volunteering for a worthwhile cause.

In future years, that volunteer work on their resumes may prove to be just as valuable as paid employment.

Check out the original Challenger, Gray & Christmas report here.