{"id":5381,"date":"2012-03-05T06:30:56","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T13:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=5381"},"modified":"2013-05-13T17:30:54","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T23:30:54","slug":"economy-leaves-few-options-for-idaho-teens-who-want-need-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/05\/economy-leaves-few-options-for-idaho-teens-who-want-need-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Economy Leaves Few Options For Idaho Teens Who Want, Need Work"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

At Boise High, a binder that a few years ago was full of job listings for students now has barely any use. A career counselor says local businesses used to call all of the time looking for students to fill part-time jobs. Now, those calls are rare.<\/p><\/div>\n

The economic downturn hit young people especially hard.\u00a0 Today\u2019s young adults are the “boomerang generation,” given how many have landed back home with parents.\u00a0 For teens, jobs are even harder to come by, and few places are tougher than Idaho.\u00a0 Last year, the state\u2019s teen unemployment rate stood at 30 percent<\/a>, one of the highest rates in the nation<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a number that represents lost opportunities.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a weekday evening, and high school junior Igor Autin is kicked back in his living room, doing something he does a lot: playing video games.\u00a0 “This is Halo Reach,” Autin says.\u00a0 “It\u2019s kind of the biggest game that\u2019s out.”<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object>Economy Leaves Few Options For Idaho Teens Who Want, Need Work<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On the screen, there\u2019s a battle raging in what looks like a futuristic abandoned building.\u00a0 “This is a multiplayer map that is set in the remains of Sword Base, which is a human base that mainly dealt with small fighter missile launches,” he explains.\u00a0 Then he laughs.\u00a0 “I\u2019m such a nerd for knowing that!” he says.<\/p>\n

He knows that because he\u2019s had time to get good.\u00a0 It\u2019s the upside of not having a job.\u00a0 “I would love to have work to do,” Autin says, “but because there\u2019s really nothing else to do, you\u2019ve just got to stay occupied, so you play video games.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Igor Autin says he would rather have a job, and spend less time playing video games.<\/p><\/div>\n

Autin is a smart kid.\u00a0 He gets good grades, and he\u2019s on the school debate team.\u00a0 He\u2019s planning to go to college, and he\u2019d love to go out of state.\u00a0 That means saving money, but he has had no luck finding a job, even after months of looking.\u00a0 He wonders how he\u2019ll get work experience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of situation that concerns Court Hanson, a college and career counselor at Boise High.\u00a0 “I\u2019m worried that there is a group of teenagers that aren\u2019t getting those work skills,” Hanson says.\u00a0 Hanson is afraid they\u2019re not learning simple but important things, like how to deal with customers and co-workers, and how to problem-solve in a work environment.\u00a0 He says he won\u2019t be surprised if some kids get all the way through college without ever being able to get a job.\u00a0 The market is just that bad.<\/p>\n

“When we started the career center, we kept a huge three-ring binder with job announcements, job postings,” he says.\u00a0 It was a good two or three inches thick.\u00a0 Businesses called all the time, he says, looking for students with a few hours to spare after school.\u00a0 But they don’t call anymore.\u00a0 “I ended one school year with the notebook still pretty full, and I came back the next year, and that next year it went to zero, practically.\u00a0 Maybe one or two calls in a semester,” Hanson says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Autin, a good student, is on Boise High's debate team.<\/p><\/div>\n

Labor market analysts<\/a> say young people face particular challenges, as they compete with older and more experienced workers in an economy that has made jobs scarce.\u00a0 Hanson says that\u2019s bad news for all of the high school kids he works with.\u00a0 But it\u2019s especially hard for students who need to work \u2013 the ones who start fending for themselves early.<\/p>\n

Madison Bolan, a senior at Frank Church High School, is one such student.\u00a0 “Okay, I\u2019ve gone to 13 different schools,” she says.\u00a0 “I\u2019ve gone to seven different high schools.”<\/p>\n

Bolan, 17, goes by Maddie.\u00a0 Family conflicts \u2013 she doesn\u2019t want to be too specific about them \u2013 led her to move out earlier this year.\u00a0 She lives with her boyfriend, now.\u00a0 His mom has turned their house into a kind of way station for people who can\u2019t quite make it on their own.\u00a0 “She\u2019s got her ex-sister-in-law living there, and her kids used to live there, and his older sister lives there still, and their friends used to live there at one point,” Bolan explains.\u00a0 “We\u2019re living there.\u00a0 There\u2019s a bunch of people!\u00a0 Her boyfriend\u2019s living there.\u00a0 There\u2019s a bunch of people in the house.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard, but we\u2019re getting through it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a recession.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Frank Church High School, where Madison Bolan and Stephen Berry are students<\/p><\/div>\n

Bolan\u2019s main worry is finding work.\u00a0 She\u2019s been applying, but nothing has come through.\u00a0 She\u2019s waiting to hear about an opening at a waterpark concession stand.\u00a0 It\u2019s the sort of carefree summer job any teenager might do, but for Bolan there\u2019s more at stake.\u00a0 She has plans for herself: community college, and then Boise State.\u00a0 But first, she needs a way to stay afloat.\u00a0 “It\u2019s just scary, because time keeps going, whether you\u2019re ready or not,” she says.\u00a0 “And you\u2019ll get left behind.\u00a0 You will.\u00a0 And I just \u2013 I just need this job.\u00a0 I just need \u2013 you need a job!”<\/p>\n

Another senior at Frank Church, Stephen Berry, has a different story<\/a>, but similar desperation.\u00a0 “At my house, we have four people going off of one income,” he says.\u00a0 “So, even with food stamps and Medicaid, we still barely make it by.”<\/p>\n

Berry\u2019s stepdad works for a furniture store.\u00a0 His mom has an illness that requires expensive medications, and keeps her from working.\u00a0 Berry says he feels like burden.\u00a0 He wants to have a job, and chip in.\u00a0 “I\u2019ve applied for at least 20 places, 25 places, multiple times each.\u00a0 And I know Wal-Mart, I\u2019ve re-submitted my application at least seven times,” Berry says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Stephen Berry says he's been looking for work nearly every day for months now, with no luck.<\/p><\/div>\n

He focuses on Wal-Mart because it\u2019s not far from his house, and he doesn\u2019t have a car.\u00a0 He could work nights, he says, then go to school, and sleep in the evening.\u00a0 Instead, without a job, he sometimes spends afternoons walking to the businesses within a few miles of his home, asking if they have anything he could do.\u00a0 “There\u2019s a very, very small chance of getting a job.\u00a0 So, you have to pretty much ignore your feelings to be able to get ready to go out and apply to all of those places again,” Berry says.\u00a0 “It\u2019s really painful, but sometimes you\u2019ve just got to take it on the chin and keep going.”<\/p>\n

For Berry, at least, there is an opportunity in sight.\u00a0 He has joined the Marines, and he\u2019ll head to boot camp in late July.\u00a0 He plans to give his family access to his bank account.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a lot of time to get through between now and then.<\/p>\n

The pernicious thing about teen unemployment, analysts say<\/a>, is that it has a tight grip.\u00a0 When you don\u2019t work as a teen, you have a harder time as a young adult.\u00a0 When you have a hard time as a young adult, you have a harder time later on, in middle age.\u00a0 If all of that holds, thousands of Idaho teens have a long road ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The economic downturn hit young people especially hard.\u00a0 Today\u2019s young adults are the “boomerang generation,” given how many have landed back home with parents.\u00a0 For teens, jobs are even harder to come by, and few places are tougher than Idaho.\u00a0 Last year, the state\u2019s teen unemployment rate stood at 30 percent, one of the highest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":5389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[46,74,133],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}