Teens face worst job market in 50 years

NEW YORK, May 25 (UPI) -- The souring U.S. economy is expected to make it difficult for teenagers to find summer jobs this year, analysts say.

The 2008 job market for youths is shaping up to be the weakest in more than half a century, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Only about one-third of the 16- to 19-year-olds in the United States are likely to be employed this summer, the smallest share since the government began tracking teenage work in 1948, according to a paper published by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

By comparison, 45 percent of teens age 16 to 19 were employed in 2000, the newspaper said.

Among minorities, the numbers are even lower, with only 21 percent of African-Americans and 31 percent of Hispanics from the ages of 16 to 19 employed last summer, U.S. Labor Department figures say.

"When you go into a recession, kids always get hit the hardest," said Andrew Sum, an economist at the Center for Labor Market Studies who led the summer job market study.

"Kids always go to the back of the hiring queue. Now, they find themselves with a lot of other people in line ahead of them."