I feel bad for teenagers who actually NEED summer jobs like that for some cash and experience.

Will this summer have an epidemic of unemployed teens?

@dragonfire81: Yeah but these men NEED these jobs to support their families and themselves.

@dragonfire81: Out-of-work adults also NEED jobs to pay rent and feed their family.

Yeah, it sucks that teens might have a shortage of jobs, but this is what *happens* during a recession. Adults NEED work to live, while teens generally don't need the job nearly as much.

@dragonfire81: Also many teens can volunteer for experience. This might not work for everyone, of course, but it can for many.

@dragonfire81: As a college student I'm even having trouble finding a low-wage job such as being a lifeguard or something in retail. I need a quick 2nd part time job during the summer and I'm seeing the same things happen up in New England. All the positions are already snatched up by those that were laid off earlier in the year.

Kids in the Hall FTW.

People are getting over themselves and actually working in jobs that before were "below" them.

Maybe we'll start getting more people working in other fields like fast food, construction, janitorial work, and other jobs that were "below us" before the recession.

I was just thinking about that kids in the hall sketch a few weeks back. What a great show.

@dragonfire81: Teens always have the highest unemployment rate of any age bracket. So, if there is an "epidemic" of unemployed teens, it will be nothing new.

I'm not sure I get the big deal because last summer we read stories like this:

[www.wwaytv3.com]

There's been a shortage of kids willing to work summer jobs for a number of years.

Anyone ever been a lifeguard? I spent a summer doing it in college. When I was taking the class, I was like, man, $10 an hour--sweet. Then I got a job lifeguarding, and it suuuuuuucked. It was hot and we weren't allowed in the pool (while working, obviously). Whiny kids, sunburn. One of my coworkers got stung by a bee daily, I kid you not. The worst part was that it was boring. We didn't have music playing in the area or anything, so you just sat and looked at the water for 45 minutes at a time, then moved and sat somewhere else for 45 minutes. Those people are earning their $10 an hour.

@Sean Young: I have to admit, I would take great pleasure in being served a cheeseburger by the same jerks who used to belittle me while I worked wage slave jobs in school.

Nothing like being lectured about I shouldn't have "dropped out of high school" and "thrown my life away" by jackasses in business suits while working 30 hours a week and staying on dean's list.

@RandomHookup: There's been a shortage of kids willing to work summer jobs for a number of years.

That's definitely something that's HIGHLY variable by region. Around here, the city summer jobs program had thousands of applicants that they couldn't take.

@Etoiles: and don't forget the kids who worked and then DC didn't pay

If they get jobs at Six Flags, maybe things will be run better. I get tired of the attitude I see from the usual crop of workers that they clearly don't want to be there and could give less of a shit about making sure things work.

@babyruthless:

I was a lifeguard for five years at the end of high school and through college. Best job ever for a young adult, I think. We had a pretty sweet place to work, and I couldn't complain. I got some great experience, leadership and responsibilities, and I got to look at good looking girls in bikinis all day.

Better than when I worked at Circuit City for 6 months.

@Robobot: Amen to that. There's a guy working at a Pizza Hut near my house whom I remember when I worked retail while in college. He was a total dick. A-hole businessman type guy. Not sure what he did beforehand, but he always came into my store in a suit. When I saw him working the counter at Pizza Hut, I had a slight pang of satisfaction. I wouldn't ever wish anyone to lose their jobs, but it was vindicating seeing him in that position.

@babyruthless: Don't forget the lifeguard's mantra: "Hey, kid. Yes, YOU. Stop running!"
(repeat every three minutes or until hoarse)

Although, it was fun telling the new lifeguards that, yes, they would have to wear Speedos. All day, for the world to see.
And for GODS sakes, try not to stare at the cute girls too much because you'll scare the young children with your bulging manhood. And no, your condition does not justify taking a fifteen-minute break. So suck it up, Don Juan.

Yup: boredom + adolescents = casual, psychosexual cruelty.

@babyruthless: My friend was a lifeguard all through college in an indoor pool. The cool thing about where he worked is they did overnighters where boy scouts or whoever would rent the pool, and we'd come hang out. They'd have like an hour of pool time then two hours off throughout the night. Plus I think he got paid double time during overnighters. So those were cool when a bunch of us all went and hung out during the downtimes, but he said it totally sucked during the hour they were in there. And he said it sucked working during the day - exact same reasons you mentioned aside from beestings and sunburn.

@babyruthless: lifeguarding is only as easy as the place where you work makes it - sure, it might be easy if you're at a public pool where no one really expects you to do anything, but on the other end of the spectrum are waterparks, where people will actually get themselves killed if you don't pay attention. Never been jealous of those guys..

Man I miss KitH so much. Thank you for a classic sketch.

@theblackdog: Those people are everywhere. I really want to tell them that if it is that bad they can leave anytime they want and nobody is forcing them to work there.

@babyruthless: I was a lifeguard for about 12 years, 11 of which I spent at the same pool. I worked my way up the ranks from guard, to WSI (swim lesson teacher), to pool manager and was certified to teach lifeguard training and CPR. Best job ever, even in 122* heat.

@nakedscience:
True they want an experienced worker during the downturn but when things start to pick up the young will make out like bandits. The older workers will not be able to move due to underwater home values, family, the need for higher pay, etc. The young will eat these people alive when things pick up.

@Sean Young: In Ohio there were several hundred applications for one job as an elementary school janitor. There were similar huge turnouts for job fairs at local zoos and amusement parks. People got over themselves around here quite a while ago. McJob > Homelessness.

I work in a job like lifeguarding where you need 20+ hours to become certified and the pay is great. However there is a 50% dropout rate even when you can easily make $100 a day. The young people do not like people yelling at them and quite frankly they don't want to put the effort in. It is sad but we do not have enough people to work.

@theblackdog: Yep, I bet the 40 year old dads who are trying to support their family and have gone from salary to 9 bucks an hour are going to be grinning ear to ear and whistling while they check your seat belt. If anything, I bet the staff will be even more disgruntled knowing this is what they have to do to still bring home the bacon.

@theblackdog: Exact opposite to a decade to 15 years ago when Six Flags was trying to import 18+ year olds from Poland, etc to make up the labor deficit. That, of course, prior to the influx of fake ID'ed illegal immigrants...

You'll get no sympathy from this 20-year-old living in South Florida. I have been trying to find a job for two years now, searching for all common entry level positions that a teen would normally work for. Fast food, slacker-type jobs, manual labor, anything. If cheap labor doesn't have the job, then it's a guy with work experience and a degree. I have neither. College tuition was racking up and I wasn't comfortable about being in debt before I could even get my AA. My only choice was to actually join the armed forces unless I wanted to be in debt or living on the streets. At least people with work experience and a degree have a foundation to fall back on--too bad that it's supposed to be the foundation where I stick my foot in the door.

More power to the non teens that want that job. I tried to be a lifeguard in Florida but I don't have 20/20 corrected/able vison which automatically disqualifies you. That's the sort of thing that becomes an obstacle at an older age and not the physical rigors of the tryout/job.

@TEW: Right now, unemployed people NEED WORK. It doesn't have to do with being an experienced worker. It just has to do with the fact that there are no other jobs available. When things pick up, these older workers will slowly start moving back to their old careers, or find other, better paying work elsewhere. These older workers do not want to, nor do they plan on, working as a lifegaurd for the rest of their lives.

@azsumrg1rl: OMG. Where did you guard at?

@Radi0logy: The French Canadian fur/Armani suit trapper sketch is the best sketch that's ever been on TV.

@nakedscience: My point is that they older workers most likely have a mortgage and a family. Jobs in the older workers desirable field might be across the country and they can't be as flexible then some 25 year old out of college. Also the home values have dropped so low that some workers might not even be able to move for a job if they wanted to. Furthermore newly graduates of college can low ball the wages of the older workers as they try desperately to reestablish their retirement nest egg.

I am with you on this one. Especially since I am 20 years old, graduating next spring and entry level jobs are getting taken up by the older generations. YES I feel bad for them and YES I know they have families to feed and such. It is just that i am coming out of college with 135,00 in debt from student loans, and my parents are NOT paying the payments.

@Megalomania: I have to say, thinking that working at a public pool means its easy is just downright wrong. I worked several summers as a lifeguard at city pools in Cincinnati, and I earned my money. There would be days that you had 2-300 people in your pool, with people being turned away at the gate. You had gangs, horny teenagers, misbehaving kids, drug use, fights, and at least once, someone took a dump in the urinal. That, and I made 10 saves over 3 summers, most private lifeguards can't claim those numbers.

@babyruthless: Yeah but if college educated professionals are snapping up all the jobs that usually go to teens what are teens left with? nothing.

Pretty hard to build any kind of resume if you can't find work anywhere. Only so many places will accept applicants with little to no experience.

@dragonfire81: Not a single job that I had as a teenager has paved the road to where I am in my career. Sorry, but I just can't feel for unemployed teenagers unless their family depends on their wages to pay the bills.

@boobaloob: No single job you had lent experience to your resume that helped in a later position?

The assumption seems to be that professionals are taking these jobs. I doubt that is so, mainly because no one will hire business suit types for this type of work. They know they'll quit as soon as a better option comes along.

I think adults taking these jobs have been pushed out of the type of jobs that don't require a college education but are very important to society. People like those who used to make cars, clean hours, or do carpentry lose work when the economy goes bad and people give up paying someone else to do such things.

This almost goes to point of should you hire an over qualified person ?

Or wouldn't it be discrimination or a form employment profiling to say ' ah ,they're old, over qualified and made a lot more money elsewhere so I'm not gonna hire them ' (even IF they are qualified and can still pass the test) ?

Who to say though . What if someone wants a career change or doesn't care about material things anymore . Or simply needs a job , wants to work and is qualified .

You can't always look at a job applicant as a potential career employee . You shouldn't be profiling job applicants .

@dragonfire81: I agree with boobaloob. It's not anything I do now and saying it proves quality of work and punctuality and all that, well, if you haven't learned it by the time you're a teenager by getting your butt to school, etc I don't know. All I ever heard once I was going to get a real job was "you don't have experience in this field."

@dragonfire81: Yeah, I don't. There's nothing a crap job teaches you except how to mistrust your socially maladjusted boss, how to get felt up by middle aged men, and how to get stoned in the walk-in. If kids are working only in the summer, they don't really need a job, not like the adult who needs to feed his/her kids need the job.

i have been trying to get a job in the south for a year, but apparently there are no jobs for people with college degrees. i would apply for a lifeguard job, but i live in a racist town that doesn't have public pools. the south is what is wrong with america.

I don't think it should come down to teenager or old guy/gal . If there's an opening and older applicant is there , ready , willing and able on the spot why wait an extra week or two for a college kid .

This logic is almost as bad as some parents demanding preferential treatment and what I mean by that is they think they should get priortiy over every single person , senior with grown kid or an employee who they perceive as not really needing the job/money . People's motivations for working really shouldn't matter . If you are at the right place at the right time your predicament shouldn't matter .

@BytheSea: I gotta disagree. Summer jobs teach you how to deal with the fact that eventually this is what you're going to be doing with your life, especially if you get a full time job for the summer. It makes you realize that work sucks but money is good. It crushes whatever idealism you had and sends you down a road to Business school. The more demeaning the summer job, the better businessman you will be, because then nothing your boss asks you to do will be degrading.

@dave_coder: and many of those teens NEED those jobs to help support THEIR families as their parents are unable to do so.