Summer Jobs Go Begging : With Fewer Kids to Hire, More ‘Help Wanted’ Signs Are Staying Up; but Are Today’s Teens Able (Much Less Willing) to Work?

At 9:45 a.m., Genevieve Guereca, 17, boards a bus at Lincoln High School for a 45-minute ride to Magic Mountain theme park in Valencia. Guereca isn’t off for a summer outing. Instead, from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m., she’ll be on her feet, earning $4.25 an hour as a hostess in one of the park’s restaurants.

Guereca, the youngest of eight orphaned children, lives with her grandmother in Lincoln Heights. Her long ride to work is a sign of the times.

In years past, it seemed, hordes of teen-agers and young adults competed vigorously for the mostly minimum-wage summer jobs available, some beginning their search as early as February or March.

Now, because of demographic trends, regional differences in numbers of young workers and, some say, a declining work ethic, many summer jobs are going begging and employers are turning innovative to attract teen-age workers.

As might be expected, many high school and college-age workers have a slightly different perspective on why, with summer well under way, the “help wanted” signs are still out at fast food outlets, retail clothing stores, booksellers and ice cream shops from coast to coast.

Many employers, they complain, have used students as virtual slave labor, hiring too few summer workers and forcing the “lucky” ones to work long hours almost without letup. “There was a motto,” Los Angeles Valley College student Brad Morris remembers of his high school job in a fast food operation: “ ‘If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.’ ”

And many students argue that, even with the relative abundance of summer jobs now, most of them involve mindless (if not backbreaking) work for minimum wage--often a less attractive option than taking a trip, going to tennis camp or even attending summer school.

Busing In Students

Whatever the reasons for the dearth of willing workers, this year Magic Mountain is cooperating with school districts, Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce in a pilot program to employ 75 students bused from Los Angeles and an additional 60 from Glendale.

To fill its 3,200-employee quota, the theme park instituted a massive direct mail campaign, targeting teens and their parents. In spring, the company hosted a parents day to convince adults that “this is a good, wholesome, clean and safe environment,” said Gary J. Vien, the park’s personnel manager.

Attracting employees even influenced creation of Ninja, advertised as “the black belt of roller coasters,” which was designed to offer excitement to young workers.

In many areas, the employee shortage is changing working conditions. At Magic Mountain’s sister theme park, Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, N.J., the company is paying $4.25 an hour, well above the state minimum wage of $3.35. Workers who stay beyond Labor Day receive a 50-cent-an-hour raise, retroactive over the entire summer.

In Boston, counter jobs at Faneuil Hall Marketplace are fetching $8 an hour.

And at Topanga Plaza shopping center in Chatsworth, where 40 merchants display “Help Wanted” signs, Benetton, a trendy sportswear shop, switched to a commission plan, expected to raise salaries significantly.

In part, jobs are going begging because of demographics.

“We have an extremely significant shortfall of young employees, and we expect this to last into the 1990s,” said Joe Richey, a Pacific Bell human resources executive on loan to the Industry Education Council. “In 1987, we had more people leaving the work force than entering.”

In affluent areas, some kids don’t want jobs. Employers note the educational caliber of young people has declined markedly, with many teens unable to speak grammatical English, add and subtract or even answer a telephone courteously.

Moreover, say employers, many youngsters don’t seem to understand the concept of working hard. As Tom Fulton, manager of Lindberg Nutrition in Torrance’s Del Amo Fashion Center put it, “The Protestant (work) ethic is no longer.”

Another obstacle is getting kids who need work to where the jobs are.

“The San Fernando Valley has more jobs than people who want work. Mid-city and East Los Angeles have the workers, but not the jobs,” explained Cecilia Glorious, a Los Angeles School District counselor who coordinates First Break, a jobs program with the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

For the bubbly Genevieve Guereca, Magic Mountain seemed like a golden opportunity, well worth the long commute.

“There were no jobs in my neighborhood,” she said. “I might have been able to get a job at a department store, but I think stock work would be very boring.” And Guereca has a goal. “I want to graduate high school and study photography, so I can get a job photographing children.”

Professionals agree that losing out on an opportunity to work can have lifelong consequences.

“A lot of kids don’t understand the work ethic,” said Jane Dawson, director of Los Angeles’ federally funded Summer Youth Employment and Training Program.

“They have never worked before and have no role models at home. They need to learn to show up on time, be there regularly, take the job seriously, get along with people, and dress appropriately. If you never learn that, you will have significant problems in life.”

Dawson is placing 9,000 disadvantaged youngsters in part-time jobs this season.

For most employers, hiring is a year-round concern. Ron Piazza, owner of four McDonald’s franchises in Lakewood, thinks he is fortunate that 60% to 70% of his employees are reliable and conscientious. Nevertheless, Piazza estimates that staffing each of his outlets with 100 people requires hiring about 200 employees every year.

One in 50 Is Good

Lack of applications isn’t the problem.

“For every 50 applications I receive, after screening, I might find one good worker,” said Cynthia Bethel, a district manager for Pacific Sunware, who oversees the specialty shops from Bakersfield to Torrance.

Many managers are shocked by what they perceive of today’s young work force. At the B. Dalton bookstore at the Santa Monica Place shopping center, manager Paula Cuske reports half of the employees she hires can’t perform basic grade school tasks such as alphabetizing.

“I have seen kids keep the alphabet in front of them, and I have seen them write the alphabet on their hands,” she said.

No Interest in Customers

Darlene Trilk, manager of The Limited clothing store in Topanga Plaza, moved here from Dubuque, Iowa, a few years ago. In Iowa, she said longingly, employees were uniformly courteous to shoppers and called her Mrs. Trilk. One of her biggest problems, Trilk said, is persuading employees to be interested in customers.

“I actually have to say to these kids, ‘See that lady shopper over there? She is paying your check,’ ” Trilk said.

It would appear that in the not so distant past, things were different. Seven years ago, when Bill Fulton started as a stock boy at Lindberg Nutrition, his chores included cleaning the toilets.

“It wasn’t a pleasant job, but the owners were very nice about working around my college schedule, and I was glad to be working,” Fulton recalled. Today, Fulton, 26, is the store manager, studying for a master’s degree in industrial psychology.

‘They Want Money Fast’

“In my day,” he said, sounding like an old man, “people still majored in humanities and wanted to contribute. Today, it seems as though everyone not only wants money, they want money fast. We hire kids who want raises right away. And if they don’t get raises, they get really frustrated, lose interest and leave.”

Fulton confesses he has given up on kids.

“Frankly, I like to hire elderly people. They are much more reliable. And they have different values,” he said.

But are kids getting a bad rap? Trilk acknowledges that workers who remain employed are conscientious. One of her best employees is the daughter of a heart surgeon, a student with no apparent financial need who enjoys working.

Some Have Bad Experiences

Clearly, some kids are turned off by bad experiences. Brad Morris, 19, who now has a good job as an assistant engineer at a recording studio, looks back at the fast food experience with some bitterness.

“They (fast food operators) get 16-year-old kids who are desperate for money, and work them to death for the minimum wage. . . . If there was no one waiting for service, they expected you to mop the floors or scrape gum off the undersides of the tables. If they could have, they would have had you mopping the ceilings. There was never a minute to stop,” he said.

Pia Hughes, 18, of Inglewood is taking her second summer off. Hughes, a recent graduate of Chatsworth High School, was a member of the cheerleading squad. Two summers ago, she worked for a men’s clothing store. Because the boss couldn’t find enough help, Hughes worked seven days a week. She started an hour before the store opened, cleaning up stock, and stayed an hour after closing, a 10-hour day.

The daughter of an airline skycap and a drugstore employee, Hughes drives a 1985 Toyota. In addition to her car, clothes and spending money, her parents paid for annual cheerleading expenses of about $600. In July, Hughes will visit the University of Colorado, which she will attend in September.

In the meantime, “I’m happy to stay at home and help around the house and visit my friends,” she said.

Sports, Cruise Take Up Time

Stephanie Ellis, 18, isn’t working, either. Ellis of Northridge said she never really has worked.

“I was on the softball and volleyball teams,” she explained.

Ellis says her father, a furniture store owner, and mother, who designs silk flower arrangements, are “on my case about working.” She turned down a job at her father’s store because, in her words, “it’s boring.” She may take a job selling newspaper subscriptions by telephone or sign on with a pharmacy at the drugstore where her brother works.

But Ellis needs time off to go on a cruise to Mexico in a few weeks with friends, a graduation present from her parents.

Incentives Don’t Help

Even jobs that appear attractive are difficult to staff. At The Limited, for example, workers and family members are entitled to a 30% discount on all apparel, including sales and specials. In addition, employees receive an extra dollar each time they sell certain items, such as scarfs.

“Some of the more motivated salespeople can earn $7 to $9 an hour,” Trilk said. Nevertheless, she notes, “For every five girls I hire I might find one or two good workers.”

Retailers are having so many problems hiring and retaining good help that Brandace Berger, vice president for Torrance Co., owner and operator of the Del Amo Fashion Center, thinks developers are going to have to solve the problems.

“We need to create a University of Shopping Centers, where we teach the history of fashion, merchandising and display,” she said. “We need to make retailing an important career. And we need to give salespeople perks such as child care centers and attractive commissions and salaries.”

Recruiting Practices

The quests have made for some interesting recruiting practices. Bethel, when staffing her Santa Monica store, looks to private West Los Angeles girls schools, where she says candidates are better educated and more industrious. And whenever Bethel goes shopping, she isn’t above luring away someone else’s good salesperson.

“I frequently leave my card, and tell the person, ‘If you’re ever looking for a job come see me,’ ” she said.

Although the tactics may seem amusing, many observers note that the underlying problems aren’t funny. Joe Richey, the personnel executive on loan to the Industry Education Council, is alarmed.

“Things have gotten much worse in the past few years, and corporate human resources vice presidents know there is a real problem,” he said.

Worried About Unemployable

In 1980, when Richey’s company, Pacific Bell, ran ads for entry level positions, the firm typically would receive 300 to 500 responses, with between one-third and one-half of the applicants qualified. Today, Rickey said, the same ad brings 50 to 100 responses, with perhaps 10% qualified. In addition, after passing a pre-screening interview, 50% of the applicants can’t pass written tests geared to 9th- and 10th-grade material.

Five years ago, Richey was concerned about the unemployed. Today, he is concerned about the unemployable.

In Central Los Angeles, Richey estimates, 50% of kids are dropping out of school.

“We are raising a generation of functional illiterates, and this has widespread consequences for our society,” he warned.