Five summer jobs teens should avoid
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The National Consumers League released its annual Five Worst Teen Jobs report today, and for the third year in a row an agriculture job tops the list of gigs teenagers are advised to avoid.
The League’s Five Worst Teen Jobs this year are:
1. Agriculture: harvesting crops
2. Construction and height work
3. Driver/Operator: forklifts, tractors and ATV’s
4. Traveling youth sales crews
5. Outside helper: landscaping, grounds-keeping and lawn service
In this year’s report, the League added illegal jobs in meat packing plants as a Bonus Worst Job. Recent federal immigration raids have found children as young as 15 working in meat packing plants, the League said in a statement, despite laws that mandate employees be at least 18 years old work in the plants.
The League uses government statistics and reports from state labor officials and news accounts of injuries and deaths to produce its annual report, the statement said. The report is also produced with the help of the Child Labor Coalition, the League said.
About 2.6 million 16- and 17-year-olds worked in the U.S. in 2007, the statement said, noting that complete teenage employment records for 2008 haven’t yet been released.
The full report, complete with statistics on why those jobs made the worst list, can be seen here.
-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles