By Omie Drawhorn
Alyssa Fain was hoping she’d find a job this summer.
The 17-year-old Silverton High School graduate will be attending college in the fall and needs to make money for school. She also recently got her license and is saving for a car.
“I’ve been everywhere,” she said of her fruitless job search.
Fain, like many other teenagers, has been unable to find work.
“I went to the grocery stores, restaurants, and small businesses with my resume but there aren’t any openings,” she said.
Nick Beleiciks, state employment economist with the Oregon Employment Department, said teen hiring has taken a hit since the start of the recession and hasn’t recovered.
“Teen hiring is essentially half of what it was before the start of the recession,” he said. He said these numbers refer to teenagers between 16 and 19 years old.
He said nationally, in May, teen unemployment was at 24.2 percent, which had come down slightly from last year — 26.4 percent.
Fain said she hadn’t been able to find a job last summer either, but she wasn’t too worried. But now she needs the money more than ever.
“Any money I do make would go straight to my savings account,” she said.
Beleiciks said there aren’t any statistics out for this summer yet, but some industries that would normally hire teenagers are adding jobs.
“The retail trade has seen good growth over the last year between April and May,” he said.
The leisure and hospitality industry experienced some growth but not as much as in the past.
“The opportunities are still there; employers in those industries are hiring but there’s more competition also,” he said.
Renee Nichols, owner of Figaro’s in Silverton, said she isn’t doing any hiring this summer.
“I’ve had the same employees for some time,” she said.
Nichols has 10 employees, two of whom are still in high school and two who just graduated.
She said in order to deliver and run all the machinery, employees must be at least 18, but she does hire occasionally at 16.
She said she used to have 14-15 employees, but with the recession, business has been slower and she has had to cut back.
She said she keeps applications on file that she goes through when she needs help.
“It’s too bad we don’t have more business, then we could have more employees, but it’s just the economy, it’s gotten soft,” she said.
Taehya Conner, 14, has also had a hard time finding work this summer.
“I keep on looking, I keep on checking back and they say ‘We’ll get back to you,’” she said. “I ask them if they’ve looked at my resume. I have good references.”
Conner said there just aren’t many jobs out there, and for the ones that are available, there is a lot of competition, including from older, more experienced people.
“Three or four years ago, you’d see teenagers working at McDonalds,” she said. “It’s turned into a lot of adults with families.”
With gas prices so high, commuting to Salem or Mount Angel for work isn’t an option, she said. For now, she’ll catch up with friends and spend time volunteering for the Apple Tree School Supply Drive put on by Silverton Together.
In an area without a lot of job openings “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
Even the area farms can be hard to break into.
Gayle Goschie of Goschie Farms said oftentimes, jobs are limited to relatives.
“For what we have, there is not a lot for employees younger than 18, it involves machinery that moves, which requires a special permit,” she said.
Seasonal employment starts before school in out for high school students and ends after school starts.
“There is just a small window where they can work,” she said.
But jobs are still out there for teens. There is just more competition. Oregon employers hired nearly 27,500 new workers ages 14 to 18 in July, August, or September of 2010. Beleiciks said teen hiring will probably rebound as the economy recovers.
Jennifer King, assistant manager at Silverton Subway, said that the restaurant had hired a couple people this summer, which is fairly common.
“We’ve had quite a few people coming in (to see if we are hiring),” she said. “We give everyone who comes in an application.”
Emmylea Williams, 18, was successful in securing a job this summer.
The Silverton High School graduate works at Canyonview Camp, just outside of Silverton.
She works in the kitchen as a chef, as well as doing clean up, which gives her about 20 hours a week.
She said she was fortunate enough that the job found her.
A friend of a friend referred her to the camp director and she was one of about 50 summer staff members hired.
John Walker, office manager for Canyonview, said the camp hired an average number of people this summer. About 20 of the 50 hired were high school aged.
“Most of it is seasonal, but a couple stay on part time through the school year,” he said.
He said most positions are for work in the kitchen or helping on the grounds, adding that while he wasn’t sure how many applications were received there were more than usual.
“I would assume that there are less jobs out there so there is more competition,” Walker said. “We are looking for people interested in the ministry part of the work, people who tend to be more of a self starter, and people who are excited about what we are doing,”
For those who haven’t been successful in finding jobs, it’s back to the drawing board.
Williams said many of her friends who can’t find work have been making money here and there through odd jobs and babysitting. Fain said it has been frustrating not to find a job, but she’ll keep looking.
“Everyone is searching for jobs but it’s a small town; there are no openings I guess,” she said. “No one wants to hire you without experience but how are you supposed to get experience without a job?”
