They’re ringing you up on the register, stocking cabinets, safeguarding swimmers, scooping ice cream and operating social media accounts for lots of grown-ups.
These youngsters are on the job this summer season, becoming a member of throngs yearly who attempt to do extra than simply lounge by the pool, play on their telephones or do chores at house. For some, it’s their first job.
The advantages are actual. There’s been analysis exhibiting individuals who labored as teenagers make extra yearly all through their careers than those that didn’t.
However this yr’s job-hunters confronted a more durable time touchdown summer season work. In June, sometimes the height of sweet sixteen summer season hiring, the unemployment fee for 16- to 19-year-olds was as much as 14.4%, in comparison with 12.3% in June 2024, based on the U.S. Division of Labor Statistics. Employers employed 12% fewer staff in that age group this Might and June than in the identical months final yr.
Modifications within the labor market and financial uncertainty are contributing to the hiring downturn, with tariffs enjoying a key function, based on the Chicago outplacement agency Challenger, Grey and Christmas. Firms that sometimes rent in the course of the season seem to have held off in anticipation of decrease demand attributable to larger costs.
However the difficult hiring surroundings didn’t discourage these three Chicago-area teenagers. They’re from completely different backgrounds, with their very own motivations for searching for work. However they share the identical need to be unbiased. They made it by way of the hiring gauntlet and discuss a few of their experiences as contemporary faces within the office.
Carla Fernandez, 17
Carla is spending a part of her summer season serving to youngsters take pleasure in an excellent birthday.
As a celebration host at Chuck E. Cheese in Skokie, she’s liable for organising the celebration space, taking orders and “ensuring the birthday baby has a blast,” because the job description says.
Her work comes with different duties, too, together with checking individuals in and even cleansing bogs.
It’s all new for the rising senior at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. Her part-time place at Chuck E. Cheese is her first job. She determined to work over break partially due to slightly peer strain. Her pals normally have summer season jobs, Carla says, and she or he felt it was time she received one, too.
Her two older sisters, 21 and 18, each received their first jobs after they have been about 16.
Carla, who lives in Skokie, hopes to grow to be a lawyer. She thinks the individuals abilities she’s studying at her job might assist as she chases that dream.
What’s one thing you’ve realized on the job?
“All the time simply maintain a smile as a result of that truly does so much, actually. Everybody’s going by way of completely different stuff all through the day. You simply received to maintain that smile.”
How are you spending your paycheck?
“I’m not, like, a spender. I do know lots of people similar to to spend. My cousin, she labored at 14. She simply spent it actually quick on, like, nails, make-up and all that. I’m simply saving it up for … perhaps a automobile. My dad and mom will in all probability pay for half of it, however I’ll pay the remaining.”
What recommendation are you able to give different teenagers on the lookout for a job?
“Simply maintain making an attempt. Take initiative. I do know everybody all the time says that, however it’s really true. Don’t lie — individuals can inform if you’re real and if you’re mendacity.”
Begin early, ask everybody you realize for job leads, and put together for interviews. And bear in mind: Rejection is regular.
Jay Quirke Hornik, 16
Jay, who’s from West Rogers Park, is one other first-timer within the workforce. He selected a singular place to get began. The rising junior at Jones School Prep, a Chicago public faculty, is interning on the Worldwide Museum of Surgical Science within the Gold Coast.
He will get to do so much on the museum, together with on a latest day when he shot a TikTok video that includes a prop skeleton at numerous reveals. He mans the museum’s social media channels alongside different teen staff, together with classmate Dana Eltayeb. They plan, shoot, edit and submit movies showcasing the museum’s surgical instruments, anatomical sketches and scale fashions.
Jay additionally works with the entrance desk and interacts with visitors within the reward store.
He hopes to get into audio manufacturing or sound engineering as a profession. It may not appear related, however Jay says the museum gig helps — he’s placing the cash he earns towards funding his punk band Akrasia. His bandmates are also working over the college break. Their objective is to pool their money to document an album.
Why did you determine to get a job this summer season?
“Final summer season, I really feel like I wasted a few of it by sleeping too late or sitting at house all day, and likewise I’m in a band, and the band requires a certain quantity of funding to push ahead.”
What has shocked you about working?
“The advantages it’s given me. I really feel extra structured. It’s actually fastened my schedule and, like, motivation to get issues carried out.”
What recommendation are you able to give different teenagers on the lookout for a job?
“I’d say apply as early as you may. I waited too lengthy, and it was positively all the way down to the road, and I used to be slightly careworn about whether or not I used to be going to get a job or not.”
Belen Doss, 16
Belen Doss, 16
Belen realized easy methods to save lives final fall. The rising junior on the Woodlawn campus of the College of Chicago Constitution College took half within the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago’s 12-week Water Works program, which introduces college students from underserved areas to water-related careers, from oceanographer to lifeguard.
Belen earned her lifeguard certification, studying easy methods to carry out CPR and use an automatic exterior defibrillator. Due to this system, she landed a lifeguard place this summer season watching over swimmers on the South Facet YMCA pool in Woodlawn.
Considered one of her favourite elements of the job is interacting with youngsters who come for classes or to chill off from the sticky Chicago warmth.
Belen determined to work this summer season as a result of she likes having her personal cash and creating helpful abilities.
The Hyde Park space native comes from an enormous household, with 12 siblings. All of them inspired her to do one thing productive over the summer season. Belen’s objective is to grow to be a dermatologist.
How are you spending your paycheck?
“I’m making an attempt to speculate it and doubtless put it aside, so it might develop and perhaps get into shares and various things like that.”
What’s one thing you’ve realized on the job?
“Positively time administration and likewise actually specializing in easy methods to take care of youngsters and stuff like that. Being extra affected person.”
What recommendation are you able to give different teenagers on the lookout for a job?
“Take motion. Don’t sit and wait. It’s important to be persistent in what you’re doing and what you’re saying. Proceed making use of, and don’t cease.”
Emmanuel Camarillo covers Ok-12 training for the Solar-Instances. Araceli Gómez-Aldana is a WBEZ reporter and host.
