By PHILLIP LUCAS
Source: Delaware Online
12:34 AM, Feb. 13, 2011
Tim Watson, of Wilmington, has filled out application after application over the past six months looking for his first job.
The sense of enthusiasm he had at the beginning of his search is a shadow of what it once was -- yet Watson, 16, tries to stay hopeful.
"I haven't tried everything yet, I guess," said Watson, a sophomore at Salesianum. He added that most contact with potential employers ends when the application is handed in -- or submitted electronically.
"Things are online now," he said. "Nobody calls you back."
Watson's plight is painfully familiar for many teens and young adults looking for work in a stagnant job market.
Finding a first job or career -- a rite of passage for teens and recent graduates across the country -- has become more difficult with fewer jobs on the market and unemployed adults now competing for part-time and entry-level positions once dominated by teens and young adults.
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The figure represents only 48.9 percent of the youth labor force -- which is the first time in history that more than half of the youth labor force was unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Youth unemployment also has reached record highs on a global level -- with the International Labor Organization reporting that about 80 million young people worldwide were jobless in 2010.
With plenty of applicants and not enough jobs to go around, Watson's father, Stuart, knows the onslaught of older unemployed applicants at local businesses have a distinct advantage over teens and young adults.
"If you're at the lower end of the scale, it's a lot trickier," he said.
Watching his son struggle to find something that once came so easy has been difficult.
"You don't want them to be discouraged," he said. "You like them to see that employment has rewards other than just monetary."
A 2010 study by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University found that rewards of employment for young people are a stronger work ethic, a diminished risk for delinquent behavior, better job opportunities in their early 20s and a diminished likelihood for teen pregnancy -- among other things.
High rates of unemployment have been linked to higher crime rates.
"It's probably not a good idea to have youth sitting around without any money and nothing to do," said Tom Smith, director of the state Division of Employment and Training in the Department of Labor. "The work experience provides a baseline opportunity to make them successful later."
The Department of Labor offers a summer employment program for eligible youth ages 14 to 21 and pairs them with employers for four- to 10-week terms.
Over the past two years, the program received about $1.5 million in additional stimulus funding to complement its budget of $450,000 from the state Legislature.
However, because the program has not received additional stimulus funding for 2011, it is likely to place only about 400 young people in jobs this summer, Smith said. In 2010, the program served about 1,200 throughout the state.
Without having a job and learning good work habits early, experts say, discouraged youth could be at risk for becoming a lost generation that prematurely drops out of the work force.
However, good news for young job seekers may be on the horizon.
The National Association of Colleges and Employees reportsemployers anticipate hiring 13.5 percent more new college graduates in 2011 than they hired from the class of 2010. In 2009, the association reported employers planned to hire 21.9 percent fewer college grads than in 2008.
A tough economy has forced about a quarter of recent college graduates to work in fields that are unrelated to their educational backgrounds.
About 40 percent of graduates under the age of 25 work in careers they did not study to enter, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.
Of that 40 percent of recent graduates, 26 percent work retail jobs or as waiters and bartenders until they can find work in their fields.
"It is hard. I always say, 'Oh, if I can't find a job, I'll be a waitress.' But I just have to motivate myself and surround myself with good people," said Alyson Belgraier, a junior majoring in health and behavior sciences at the University of Delaware.
Belgraier was in the university's Career Services Center Friday looking for pointers on where to begin a job and internship search.
Before her junior year, she'd been in the office only once -- as a freshman.
"But I wasn't really paying attention because I didn't really care about that stuff then," she said.
However, as she moves closer to graduating, Belgraier, of Long Island, N.Y., realized career planning resources are more relevant than ever as young people face challenges entering the job market.
Criztal Hernandez, a junior majoring in food and agricultural business, aspires to work for theU.S. Department of Agriculture or Food and Drug Administration to help facilitate the international trade of agricultural goods.
Despite early planning and using career planning resources, Hernandez is still anxious about finding a job after graduation.
"You kind of start thinking about the real world and what's going to happen next -- it's kind of scary," she said.
"A lot of college students are seeing their moms and dads being laid off," said Matthew Brink, director of Career Services at UD. "Because of that, there's higher levels of stress and anxiety."
There are also higher levels of freshmen planning their careers and researching their respective industries by making one-on-one intake appointments at the center.
"Last fall, I believe we had four freshmen make an appointment in their first semester," Brink said, "This year, we had 74."
He estimates the number of freshmen who use career services, such as the Blue Hen Jobs online jobs database, has tripled since last academic year.
Career coaches at the Career Services office at Delaware State University stress early exposure to internship and co-op programs years before graduation to prepare students for an increasingly competitive -- and constricted -- job market.
"What we realized is that most graduating seniors were trying to find employment either after graduation or right before graduation," said Fred Cooke, a career coach at DSU.
The office now offers between 30 and 40 formal and informal career coaching and mock interview sessions each semester.
"We're swamped, and I think it's just a matter of changing their mind-set," Cooke said.
Pupils' roles as students are cast aside when they enroll in the university, he said.
"They're pre-professionals now."
