To Work or Not To Work
According to juniorjobs. com more teens are working today then ever. In 1980 one out of every ten teens was working part time, and 1 out 20 teens was working full-time.
Today those numbers have went down more than half. One out of every four teens work part time, and one out of every ten teens work full-time.
In a recent survey of 100 working teens 60 % started working on their own and 40% were forced to work by their parents.(juniorjobs. com)
«Since I was in 8th grade my father always said to get a job,» said Freshmen Jon Butler, «Then he stopped giving me spending money.»
Butler works in landscaping in the summer months, and snow removal in the winter months.
Butler has been working for 2 ½ years and he likes his job. «In this day and age, having money helps a lot, especially for teens,» said Butler.
His father forced him to work by not giving him any money, «For about 2 weeks I was flat broke until I got my job,» said Butler.
Jon Werse, a manager at Wendy's in Middletown, found that the teens that state their parents made them get a job in the interview, quit with-in two weeks. «I don't like hiring teenagers. They're unreliable and many are rebellious,» said Werse.
Some teens choose to work for themselves. « The luxuries in life aren't free,» said Matt Christiani, «That's why I started working.»
Christiani works in the Hazlet Multi-Plex, he rips tickets and cleans the theaters floors after a showing.
Matt Christiani has been working for six months at his new job. «Working not only gets money, I meet great girls while working too,» said Christiani.
His friends were at the movies, but Christiani was at the movies too, just busy at work, Ripping tickets and cleaning up the theatre.
«It was a job,» Christiani said, «that my friends would not be caught dead doing.»
«It gets me money, but it's better then a fast-food place,» said Christiani, in his blue multi-plex jacket.
With so many jobs going begging, young people are turning up their noses at jobs at fast-food restaurants. In the teen-age work world, holding a job deemed uncool can risk a social barrier.
In a recent survey the top jobs for a teen were clear, with places like Starbucks or Gap at the top, and places like McDonald's and Burger King at the bottom.
Jay Grey, 18, a senior., summed up the recent attitude among suburban teen-agers: «You don't want to work with food,» he said. «Everybody knows that, I would never work at a McDonald's.»
Michael Wood, a vice president of Teen-age Research Unlimited, said the idea that all work was respectable, even decent, had taken a beating.
«The term `flipping burgers' has entered the popular culture to mean the lowest kind of unskilled work,» Wood said. «And teen - agers are aware of all the negative connotations that go with it.»
About 28 percent of all teen-agers in the United States said they earn money from part-time jobs, according to Wood.
Today it is obvious that young people have become much more selective in the kinds of jobs they're willing to take.
Teen Employment
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