The Teen Job Revival: Gen Z Leads The Way
Celebrate or Worry?
Here’s a statistic that will either delight or terrify you, depending on your age: nearly 40% of Gen Z is currently juggling academics with actual paid labor.
The latest data shows a 14-year high in the share of teenagers either working or actively looking for jobs.
Now, on the surface, you might be thinking “Hey, that’s great! Teens staying out of trouble, earning some spending cash, learning responsibility.” And sure, there’s some truth to that Hallmark card notion. But being the cynics we are, you know there’s more to this story than a Hallmark movie plot.
Let’s start with the blatantly obvious incentives at play here.
We’re in one of the tightest labor markets in decades, with businesses pretty damn desperate for anybody who can fig leaf as a functional human being.
No, it’s true!
So of course they’re gonna tap into the Hunger Games applicant pool of teenagers just aching to make some money.
Let me clarify one thing — At the end of the day, jobs are plentiful but the road to landing one makes ultramarathons look like a jog in the park.
