Teen Summer Job Picture Looking Better

The latest U.S. jobs report for May still shows high unemployment across the country. But there’s good news for one sector, despite the weak job market.

It’s teenagers who are getting the most jobs, and this summer is shaping up as prime time for teen employment.

The U.S. Labor Department says it’s the strongest start to the summer hiring season since 2006.

That might be good for Central Oregon teens searching for summer work.

“Central Oregon is very seasonally oriented,” Scott Reynolds, general manager of All Star Labor and Staffing, said Wednesday. “We have a lot of events — concerts, races, so the young adults and teenagers get the opportunity for the summers.”

“The resort business is really good,” said Reynolds. “We see a lot of activity around the pools, around the golf courses…so there’s really a good opportunity during the seasons for the young adults to work in.”

The latest jobs report says nationwide, the number of 16- to 19-year-olds hired in may was more than double from the year before, totaling 157,000. It was at 71,000 jobs in 2011.

On the High Desert, there’s room to bring in flex staff to help business during the summer months.

“We like the student age because, we also like how it looks to our customers and how our customers react with the people,” said Tyler Martin, general manager of Togos in Bend. “We’re supporting the community.”

Even better news is more local businesses like Togos say they’re willing to keep employees on, even after summer is over.

“We try to retain them throughout the year,” said Martin. “We like people not to just think of this as just a summer job, and we’re willing to work with people’s schedules.”

Local temporary job agencies say the surge in hiring teens for summer is representative of an uptick in the economy in the last couple years, slowly but surely.

“The statistics are still pretty horrible, because a lot of people are exhausted over looking for work,” said Martin. “But we’re hearing and feeling from our clientele in our region that there is a little bit (of improvement), and we can feel it.”

The report also forecasts this year will continue to show improvement late into summer.