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Ashley Price, 19, assists Ikiya McKinely, 6, with his math homework as Zaria Sumter, 7, watches at the Northwest YMCA last week. Price works in an after-school program that drew more than three job applicants for each open position.
When Ieshia Cooper leaves Dutch Fork High School in the afternoons and goes to work, she’s greeted by hugs from her clients.
That’s not the kind of appreciation the 16-year-old sought or received during her previous, brief career in fast food.
But she said the hugs are the best part of her job caring for children at the Northwest Family YMCA near Irmo for little more than $6 an hour.
Cooper is luckier than she might know. As the economy stumbles toward recession, applications for child-care jobs soared this spring at the Irmo-area YMCA, said Dana Snyder, youth programs director.
Snyder had 28 jobs to fill for the summer. She usually gets about 50 applications, but this spring she got nearly 90 — from teens and adults.
“We have a lot more who were in the work force for years and were looking for a new start,” she said. “They were just looking for anything.”
Finding a job is rarely easy for teenagers, but the weak economy means they will have to start earlier and look longer if they want to work this summer, according to those who deal with jobs and joblessness in the area.
The Columbia area had 46,783 teenagers ages 16 to 19 in 2006, including 16,810 in the civilian labor force — those who were working, seeking work and not in the military, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
About 23 percent of teens in the labor force in 2006 were unemployed in the Columbia metro area covering Richland, Lexington, Calhoun, Fairfield, Kershaw and Saluda counties.
That compares with the area’s jobless rate of 5 percent for those ages 20 and over.
The jobless rates are similar for South Carolina and the nation.
“Whether the economy is booming or going through stagnation, it is always a challenge to get youth employed,” said James McLawhorn Jr., president of the Columbia Urban League, which sponsors summer internships for teens. “It is more of a challenge when we have this recessionary economy than before.”
For one thing, jobs for South Carolinians of all ages will be more scarce than usual this summer, especially for jobs that require few skills and little experience — exactly the kind of jobs teens can fill, said Sam McClary, senior analyst with the S.C. Employment Security Commission’s statistics branch.
Even before the current downturn, the state’s job market changed over the past decade as low-skill jobs in manufacturing were lost in great numbers.
But the economy’s slide will be felt keenly in construction this summer.
Manufacturing and construction jobs typically require people to be at least 18, but those workers are now forced to look at the remaining sectors that require few skills: restaurants, stores and services.
“Kids are going to have to start early and look especially for jobs in the retail trade and service areas,” McClary said.
But retail jobs — a usual destination for teen workers — have become more scarce since consumers began putting the brakes on spending last fall.
Reach DuPlessis at (803) 771-8305.
