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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009

Poor economy has youth jobless rate up

It took Bianca Farley, a senior at Houston County High School, almost 1 1/2 years to find a job.

“I wanted a job to save money for college,” said Farley, who eventually found work at a Bruster’s ice cream shop in Houston County.

With an economy in a downturn, it’s getting harder for young people to find jobs.

As of August 2009, the most recent figures available, youth unemployment reached 25.5 percent for those ages 16-24 who were looking for jobs. That’s the highest it has been in the last 10 years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Marilyn Murphy, who owns her own dentistry practice in Macon, has hired teenagers in the past to work in her office during the summer.

“I want to let them see what it’s like to work in a dentist’s office. Plus, I think it’s important for teenagers to experience what they want to do in life at a young age,” Murphy said.

Some employers have begun to look for employees who are available to put in longer hours during the day while some have hired teenagers knowing it will benefit them in the long run.

Katie Mayers, who graduated from North Georgia College & State University in 2003, began working at Creter’s gift shop on Ingleside Avenue in Macon as a teenager. She ended up coming back after college and finding a full-time job at the gift shop. Mayer is now the assistant manager of Creter’s.

“Having the job in high school and college allowed me to work around my classes, and eventually the job led to my full-time career in a job that I really love with people I love to work with,” Mayers said.

Stacy Thompson, a junior at Central High School in Macon knows the difficulties of finding and working an after school job. Thompson, who currently works at the Kroger on Presidential Parkway in Macon, only has held that job since late September but was employed at the Hartley Bridge Road McDonald’s just a few months earlier.

Although she had two separate jobs in the past few months, it wasn’t easy to get to this point.

“It is kind of a long process because of the employment paperwork and the drug tests. Also the training, I had computer training that took about seven hours, and then I had to train on the register,” Thompson said.

Even though it took a while, Thompson said finding a job would help in the end.

“I needed a job to help save for a new car and eventually for college,” she said.

Tarver Bechtel is a senior at Central High School.

Lucy Ma, a senior at Houston County High School, contributed to this story.