Florida Teen Unemployment Nears 30%
(Posted June 15, 2011 06:20 am)
TALLAHASSEE, FL - Florida has the nation's 10th-highest
teen unemployment rate at nearly 29 percent, according
to figures from the
Employment Policies Institute.
Read the complete EPI release here.
Michael Saltsman, a research fellow at the institute,
has been crunching the numbers.
"I think what we see is, as costs have continued to
rise, a lot of the jobs that teens used to fill in
Florida and elsewhere have been automated. They've gone
away."
Teens who typically work as lifeguards or camp
counselors may face higher hurdles to land a job,
according to the Florida Department of Labor. The
state's cities and parks departments generally have
fewer resources to hire in this era of state budget
cuts.
When there are no jobs for teens, Saltsman says, they're
also missing out on learning other valuable skills not
necessarily taught in the classroom. If state
policymakers don't address the growing labor crisis for
young workers, Florida labor leaders say, teen summer
jobs could vanish - as already is happening elsewhere.
"McDonald's in Europe is sort of replacing 7,000
employees, essentially, with 7,000 touch-screens - so,
instead of placing your order with a person, you place
your order on a touch-screen."
Nationally, Labor Department figures show the
unemployment rate stands at 24.2 percent for all teens
and 40.7 percent for black teens.
