For Jobless Teen, Search For Work Is Struggle To Help Family

Molly Messick / StateImpact Idaho

Stephen Berry says he's been looking for work nearly every day for months now, with no luck.

StateImpact‘s story on teen unemployment will air tomorrow morning on KBSX.  Ahead of that story, we’re doing short profiles of a couple of the teenagers who agreed to be interviewed.  One of them is Stephen Berry, 18, a senior at Frank Church High School.

For Berry, wanting to work isn’t about wanting to earn spending money, or saving up for later on.  It’s about wanting to help his family.  “At my house, we have four people going off of one income,” he says.  “We barely make it by.”  Berry’s step-dad works at a furniture store, and his mother has an illness that keeps her from getting a job.  Berry’s younger sister just turned 16, and is trying to find work.

Berry, himself, has been looking for months now.  He says he’s going about it in all the ways he can think of.  “I have my name and resume entered into three or four different job application sites,” he says.  “When I’m on the bus from school, I’ll look for signs that say ‘now hiring.’  Or I’ll walk in and ask if they’re hiring.”

Usually, they’re not.  Berry says he knows part of the problem is that the odds are against him.  With so many people out of work, it’s hard for an 18-year-old to rise to the top of the list.  “They could hire someone who’s, like, 39 and used to work at Micron and needs to support a family of his own,” Berry says.

He estimates he has applied for work at 20 or 25 different businesses, and in some cases he’s applied multiple times.  “I’m looking pretty much every day,” he says.  “Even if I’m sitting at home and both cars are gone, I’ll walk to any nearby places. And by nearby I mean three or four miles.”  Then he’ll come home, he says, and look for jobs online.

Berry can count on bringing money in a few months from now.  He has enlisted in the Marines, he says, and he’ll begin boot camp in late July.  He says he’ll give his family access to his bank account, once he starts getting paid.  But that’s months away.  Too long, he says.  He has to keep trying to find work now.