Teens Have to Work Hard Just to Find a Summer Job

Searching for a summer job, Belmont High School senior Emma Pancho spent a recent afternoon reading job descriptions jotted on cards that paper an entire wall at her school’s Career Center.

But several weeks of looking has not yielded the $4-an-hour office job that Pancho is seeking. The 18-year-old Silver Lake resident, who wants money for college and a new car, has found plenty of lower-paying jobs at fast-food chains. But Pancho has turned her nose up to those jobs. “Too monotonous,” she says.

“I should have started earlier,” Pancho concedes. “A lot of (other) students are looking for jobs, too.”

Thousands of Southland young people who are willing to sacrifice some of the warm summer sunshine for cold, hard cash are in pursuit of summer jobs. And they’ll find a wide variety of jobs reflecting the area’s diverse economy: $3.35 an hour for stacking books in Los Angeles County public libraries or flipping hamburgers in fast-food grills, $200 a week for counseling at summer camp and $5.05 an hour for walking around in a Snoopy costume at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park.

Although no specific employment figures are available, the number of jobs appears to have changed very little from last summer, say employment officials.

“I would say there are, maybe, a few more jobs than last year,” said Carol Brown, coordinator of student employment at Cal State Long Beach. “But it’s always going to be competitive, because you have more students looking for jobs (in the summer) than during the rest of the year.”

Manuel Fernandez, coordinator of First Break, a summer job program sponsored by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles Unified School District and Pacific Bell, expects to find 12,000 summer jobs--the same number as last year--for youths ages 16 to 20.

It’s by no means too early to start looking for a summer job. In fact, says Hernandez, it might already be too late. “Many employers have already geared up and have taken applications for the summer,” he says.

Once again, the service industry--including fast food, retailing and movie theaters--will create the most summer jobs. Southern California amusement parks are also major sources of summer jobs.

Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia will hire 1,500 summertime employees--200 more than last year, thanks to a new restaurant, dance club and attractions. Wages start at $3.60 an hour, and jobs range from ride and show operators to janitors. “You name it, we’ve got it,” says park spokeswoman Sherrie Bang.

Many Already Taken

At Disneyland, about 600 of 1,400 summer openings already have been filled, said Jeri Beals, manager of employment services. Sea World in San Diego has hired about half the 1,500 people it plans to employ for the summer, said personnel director Penny Masters.

Some attractions, like Knott’s Berry Farm and the San Diego Zoo, say they will end up keeping more employees hired at Easter, and, as a result, may pare their summer hiring slightly. Knott’s will hire 1,000 summer employees, 150 less than last year.

Bonnie Ricci, employment administrator for the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park, says, “Easter was so close to the beginning of summer this year that those who did well were just retained for the summer.”

The supply of summer jobs differs from area to area. Suburban neighborhoods--often dotted with job-producing malls and shopping centers--sometimes can make job hunting relatively easy. “There are jobs in Orange County that go unfilled,” says Jane O’Grady, administrator of the county’s federally funded Summer Youth Program for low-income and handicapped youngsters. “Those who need jobs” and qualify for the program, she said, “should be able to get them.”

Despite the openings, there always seem to be more teen-agers than jobs. The national unemployment rate in April for those aged 16 through 19 was 17.4%, versus 6.3% for the entire work force.

Bleaker Picture

The employment picture for youngsters in the inner city--where jobs are more scarce to begin with--seems to be bleaker. In addition, the jobs that do exist in offices and assembly plants require more experience than most teen-agers can muster.

“If an inner-city kid could travel,” says Fernandez, “he could get a job anywhere in the Los Angeles area.”

And they do travel. Inner-city teens take buses to jobs at the malls and strip shopping centers along Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley and along Hawthorne Boulevard in Torrance. Fernandez says a group of high school students in South Central Los Angeles arranged to work the same shift at Universal Studios last summer so they could car-pool to work.

Making it harder for inner city youngsters has been a cutback in funds for summer job programs. O’Grady says a decline in federal funding for the Summer Youth Program in Orange County will mean the number of jobs--paying minimum wage--offered through the program will fall to 1,600 from 2,300 last year.

John Farley, director of the Summer Youth Program for Los Angeles County, says a $500,000 decrease in federal funds will mean a decline in the number of jobs to 7,400 from 9,300 last year: “That’s bad news for the kids around here.”