Students in South Bay Find a Land of Plenty in Summer Job Search
After a sporadic, three-month search, Paul Nash has yet to land a summer job. But the 16-year-old Torrance High School junior isn’t worried.
“Everyone I know is getting a job,” Nash said with a shrug. “A lot of my friends already have them. It’s not that hard to find one.”
Nash’s complacency was echoed last week by several teen-agers who joined him at the Southern California Regional Occupational Center in Torrance. The students had come to enroll in a summer jobs program offered by the nonprofit Private Industry Council of Carson, Lomita and Torrance.
“I find jobs just like that,” 17-year-old Stacey Brennan said, snapping her fingers. The North Torrance High School senior added that she already holds a job as a hostess at a pizza emporium, but is seeking a second job to supplement her income.
Prospects Good
Such smugness probably comes as a surprise to older workers who recall struggling during summer vacation to find a job, and considered themselves lucky if they were able to come up with one.
Nevertheless, local employment counselors and analysts say the prospects this summer for college and high school students seeking part- and full-time jobs are good. The strong economy and, to a lesser extent, demographic trends, are the reasons, they say.
True, many of the available jobs pay minimum wage--$3.35 an hour. And many, if not the majority, are at fast-food restaurants, where some managers say they have perennial problems recruiting workers.
May Types of Jobs
But many other types of firms also have placed orders with local private and public agencies for students to fill summer jobs ranging from manufacturers’ representatives to legal researchers, local counselors said. And the pay sometimes reaches $6 an hour or more.
“This year it just seems that there are a lot of big companies that are hiring students,” said Catherine Shaffer, who coordinates student employment activities at California State University, Dominguez Hills. The school does not keep track of the number of job openings it receives, but she estimates that it is up at least 25% this year over last.
“We’re looking forward to employing students this summer,” said Shirley Dixon, manager of Timesavers Temporary Personnel in Torrance. Dixon said her firm in recent years has come to rely on students to fill a variety of jobs during the summer.
“We miss the students when they go back to school,” she said. “It’s fantastic to have them. You can never get enough people to fill the jobs.”
Labor Force Will Swell
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national work force of 16- to 24-year-olds is expected to swell to an estimated 27 million this summer. That figure includes both unemployed and employed workers.
At the same time, the number of workers between the ages of 16 and 19 expected to enter the work force this July is 10.1 million, a number that has been declining in recent years because of lower birth rates in the 1960s. By comparison, there were 11.7 million such workers in 1980 and 12 million in 1978.
“A few years ago, it was a major accomplishment for a kid to find a summer job,” says Harvey Hamel, a senior economist with the bureau in Washington. “In the late ‘70s, teen-agers in many cases were lucky to get either a part-time or full-time job for the summer months. But summer jobs are easier to come by now as the available supply of kids contracts.”
Of course, finding a job in certain South Bay communities is harder than in others. For example, in Inglewood, where jobs are fewer and average family incomes generally lower than in Torrance, students sometimes find themselves competing for summer jobs with adults. Some students also face transportation problems when they are forced to journey outside their community to work.
900 Jobs for Disadvantaged
Jan Vogel, administrator of the federally funded South Bay Consortium, said the group hopes to place 900 economically disadvantaged and handicapped students from Inglewood, Hawthorne, Gardena, Lawndale, El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach in jobs with public and nonprofit agencies this summer. The program uses Job Training Partnership Act money to pay salaries.
A similar program financed by federal funds is operated by the Private Industry Council of Carson, Lomita and Torrance expects to place at least 260 such students from those cities in jobs.
The council also expects to find jobs for 350 other students who enroll in its Youth Employment Summer (YES) program. Program officials said some firms have already contacted them to find students to take jobs as office workers, sales clerks and nursing home assistants.
However, Sharon Murphy, director of the YES program, said the largest number of requests for students have come from fast food outlets, which typically expand their work force during the summer when sales volume increases and some older workers quit to be with their children. And, she said, she sometimes has to remind students not to “turn up their nose” at such jobs.
Competition Keen
Indeed, several managers of fast-food restaurants in the South Bay said the competition for young summer workers is keen because students either don’t want or need the jobs, or can find better ones. “I think the job market in this area is pretty competitive,” said a manager at Del Amo Fashion Center who did not want to be identified. “Inside the mall here you have all the managers coming in and hiring your employees.”
“It’s frustrating,” said Greg Hay, general manager in Southern California for Show Biz Pizza, which hires 10 to 15 additional workers at each outlet during the summer. Since December, the 45-person work force at his own Huntington Beach franchise has turned over twice, he said.
Among the jobs that are sought after by local students are those at Marineland. Linda Malek, marketing director for the aquatic park, said 200 to 225 students will be hired this summer for jobs beginning at $3.50 an hour. But the competition is tough, she warned, and if the past is any indication, at least six youngsters will apply for each job.
“We are very particular about the kids we hire,” Malek said. “They have to be outgoing and communicative because they are dealing with a situation where they can make or break a guest’s stay.”
Launching a Career
While the prospect of working near the ocean and in unusual surroundings makes Marineland a popular place for students to apply, some counselors said the prospect of getting a job that could help launch a career is also in the minds of many students.
“Students seem to be looking for the job that can offer meaningful employment,” Shaffer at Cal State Dominguez Hills said. “They say they want jobs that can give them some experience in their future jobs.”
That appears to be the case with Kelly Ducharme, who will graduate this spring from West Torrance High School. The 17-year-old said she plans to attend El Camino College and is searching for an office job. She said she wants to be paralegal, and, eventually, a lawyer, and such a job would offer her some beginning skills.
“It’s more like a mature job,” Ducharme explained.
