More then half of teens forgo summer jobs
For the first time on record, most
Because of the strong stock market gains, household net worth has increased which has given parents the ability to save more money for their children’s education. Therefore, teens do not have to work as much to save money for college. Another reason for teens not looking for jobs is the competition with older worker and foreign immigrants. Some teens feel as if it is not worth it because they will not get a job, so they just give up. So the teens that want jobs are having trouble finding them.
Some economists say that the kids that stay in school will benefit themselves and the economy. They believe that the more educated they will be in the work force the more productive they will be in the end. A professor from the
When I was in high school I chose to work where ever I could just to have some money to spend. I question the fact that more kids are studying during the summer then being lazy and not working, especially at the age of 16-19.
4 comments:
[This comment is from Chunzi.]
I agree that teens should focus on more school work than going to find jobs. The opportunity cost of studying for school work is being paid less of summer jobs. But the “ future opportunity cost” of studying school work is huge as the employment of society is based on the level of education---the more you are educated, the more you will be paid in the future. So even if teens take jobs in summer and earn whatever they can be paid, the total earn for their summer job would not be as much as the choice of studying school work than working summer jobs.
Studying in school and getting more education is potential money.
I do not completely agree with the argument that studying in the summer rather than working is more beneficial to a teenager in the long run. Summer jobs teach responsibility, time management skills, and financial planning. Even a 20-hour work week would not seriously effect a teens study time. The benefits derived from a summer job will show future employers motivation and multi-tasking skills.
Consider two job applicants with basically the same grade, but one managed to go to school and work at the same time. Who do you think will get hired?
I agree with what Penny had to say about the applicants who worked and stayed in school and the applicant that chose to study and not get a job. My brother is facing these problems now--I was involved in activities, worked, and managed to keep a very high GPA average during school. He chose to focus solely on his studies throughout high school. While he did a great job, he is not receiving the amount of scholarship money that I did, even though his grades were higher (He is going to a private liberal arts college that is similar to MC). I also think another benefit is time management. Certainly at some point in one's life one cannot focus all of his/her energies on one thing (in this case studying). Managing a job, student activities, and keeping high grades taught me many lessons that I could not have learned (such as time management) with my nose in a book somewhere.
I'm going to have to take the middle ground here. In high school I earned high grades and was involved in many activities, but I did not get my first job (excluding paper routes and babysitting) the summer after my freshman year in college. I believe time management is an important skill to learn in ages 16-19, but I don't think work is required for this. I did spend my summers studying for honors and AP courses. This helped me get into the schools I wanted to and get scholarships too. As a high school student with the security that my parents would pay for my college, I found more benefit in spending a summer studying. Are high school students perhaps becoming better economists?
Post a Comment