Now I understand the appeal of Obama to the teenage slackers

[CARLHAYDEN]

Lets see.

Last year your dad suggested that you should get a summer job in 2009.

You're a slacker and didn't want to "work," so you supported Obama for President in the hope that there wouldn't be any summer jobs for teens in 2009.

Well, Mr, Hopey-Changey has delivered...

Teenage Jobs Wasteland
Joshua Zumbrun, 07.02.09, 03:45 PM EDT
Not since 1965 has it been so hard for teens to get work.

WASHINGTON -- Think an unemployment rate of 9.5% is bad? It could be worse. You could be a teenager.

For teenagers, the summer job market has not been so bleak in generations. During what should be the start of the bustling summer job season, the unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds who want work is 24%--the worst since 1965.

The outlook for teen jobs is so bleak that it's weighing down the entire employment report, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Thursday. The country is headed for an entire decade with no job growth. In June, the report showed unemployment climbed to 9.6% from 9.5%, and 467,000 jobs were lost, thanks in large part to the decline in jobs for teens.

"The biggest problem [in the report] was that the summer job market for teenagers was nonexistent," says Joel Naroff, of Naroff Economic Advisors, in a note. "The 24% unemployment rate for this group was the second-highest since the end of World War II. While teenagers comprise only 4% of the workforce, they made up over 22% of the increase in unemployment in June."

In June, there were 5.6 million jobs for teenagers, down from 6.3 million a year ago, and nowhere near the level of the late 1990s, the golden age for teen employment. In July of 1999, there were a record 8.8 million working teens.

"The economy has, of course, been bad for the restaurants and retail stores in which many teens work, but more is at play," says Kristen Lopez Eastlick, senior research analyst for the Employment Policies Institute. "The general unemployment rate is so much higher that your hiring market is going to be represented with more experienced workers. Your unskilled worker, like your teen, can end up in competition with experienced applicants."

[CARLHAYDEN]

An elaboration on the originally produced statistics from the Phoenix Business Journl:

Jobless rates for teens, especially Hispanics, skyrocketPhoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks
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U.S. loses 467,000 jobs, unemployment rate hits 26-year high
U.S. sheds 2 million jobs since Obama took office

Teenage unemployment rates are sky high and have increased since the beginning of the year, especially for Hispanics.

The teenage jobless rate in the U.S. stands at 24 percent, according to June numbers released Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That is up from 21 percent in January and 16.3 percent in November 2007, pegged as the starting point of the current recession.

The June unemployment rate for Hispanic teenagers is 31 percent, up from 24 percent in January. The Hispanic teenage unemployment rate has doubled since December 2007.

The jobless rate for African Americans between 16 and 19 years old stood at 38 percent in June, up from 36.5 percent in January, according to BLS.

[CARLHAYDEN]

Its sad how lefties don't seem to mind the harm their policies inflict on those who are most vunerable.

[CARLHAYDEN]

Its sad how lefties don't seem to mind the harm their policies inflict on those who are most vunerable.

Clearly we should have elected Bush to a 3rd term instead, given his impressive record on job creation and making the rich pay their fair share.

Uh, in terms of economics, Bush and Obama have pretty much been on the same track, i.e. big government.

It was the idiot Bush who set up the infamous TARP, which the public opposed.

Lets face facts, big government isn't the solution to everything (as Obama believes), but rather the problem.