During the height of the pandemic, many businesses downsized a considerable amount, and hundreds of people lost their jobs. Now that demand is back up and businesses are scrambling to acquire more employees, they are forced to introduce a higher salary, and more incentives. After moving on from high stress jobs during the pandemic, many adults in the workforce chose to prioritize mental health, and opted to work from home. This caused a huge vacancy in many industries.

With all of these new job opportunities, the rate of teens entering the workforce has skyrocketed. Businesses are being forced to shift their ways in order to compensate for teen’s preferences and needs. One example of this is the Kentucky Kingdom theme park. Kentucky Kingdom relies almost entirely on teens and young adults to run the park. They were able to hugely improve their hiring rates when they raised pay and invited teens to work over the summer.  

Many teens are faced with making tough decisions for their future as they choose a summer job. Even though these short-term jobs may seem insignificant, a recent study shows that teens who pursued summer jobs were more likely to graduate high school and move onto a higher education. Another benefit of these jobs is that they can be a huge assistance in paying for college tuition. Not to mention, having these summer jobs on their resume can be extremely helpful when hunting for a long-term job in the future. Teens are aware of the competition in the current market, and they are able to have more of a choice when it comes to selecting a job, and they are able to demand more when being hired. 

What do you think you would do if you were a teen in this situation? Would you settle for what you could get, or would you use your leverage?

Works Cited:

https://newsela.com/read/teens-summer-jobs/id/2001030279/

https://www.istockphoto.com/search/2/image?phrase=help+wanted+sign