Even if today's teens wanted to flip burgers at the diner like their grandparents did, many of those romanticized summer jobs aren't even available anymore.
The 2018 Teen Summer Job Report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed that hiring of 16- to 19-year-olds fell a whole 4% in 2017. Andrew Challenger, Vice President of the executive outplacement firm, said it could be because so many big-name retailers (Toys R Us, for instance) are going out of business.
Another challenge for youth workers is, according to data from the Center of Economic and Policy Research, competing with an older generation. The fast food industry that once hired out entire high schools over the summer now employ twice as many 20- to 54-year-olds as teens.