Our very own Kim Guard and Express CEO Bill Stoller were recently featured in a Forbes article, outlining the effects of the job shortage on younger job seekers, like teenagers. Keep reading to learn about the findings of this article and why there will always be people available to fill vacant job positions.
How Businesses Are Filling Labor Gaps with Teen Employees
One of the biggest issues with the job shortage is that the federal minimum wage is currently lower than the unemployment benefits that people not working are receiving. In other words, the incentive to return to work is quite low. For this reason, teenagers are well-positioned to thrive in this new environment.
While a few years ago teenagers had a tough time finding work, today the opposite is true. In April of 2021, an Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the U.S. added 266,000 jobs. An astonishing 256,000 of those new positions went to workers ages 16-19.
Teenagers don’t have much job experience. But that doesn’t mean they don’t require as high a salary. And, perhaps most importantly, they are showing up and eager to work.
“If individuals are graduating and not going to college, we could use hundreds of them,” says Kim Guard in the Forbes article. “High school graduates are a great fit for warehouse and distribution positions. In all my years of staffing, I always wondered why we don’t see more applicants who are right out of high school.”
How Teenagers Are Benefiting from a Challenging Labor Market
But it’s not just businesses that are benefiting from the increased engagement in high schoolers and teens within the job market. As Bill Stoller says, younger employees now have a better chance to build their resumes early in their career.
“With the desperate need for skilled labor, these initial jobs allow them to explore different career paths and discover which industries are going to be most lucrative with in-demand positions while gaining experience,” he says.
In addition, statistics from Gusto show that while plenty of job openings at fast-food restaurants will be filled by teenagers, the top industries employing teens right now also include retail, education, sports and recreation, health care and social assistance. Teenagers aren’t afraid to think outside of the box or be creative when it comes to the jobs they apply for and the positions they accept. This is allowing them to try out different industries to find the right fit.
The Staffing Industry Will Always Have People to Help Find Jobs
The pandemic has had massive ramifications on the way people work. For example, there is a large portion of workers who are still working from home and will be for most of the time going forward, as well as people who lost their jobs in the service industry and have found new jobs they are deciding to keep.
But as recent trends with teenage employees show, there will always be people looking for work. This makes staffing an important industry.
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*For territories open more than sixty months, average sales in 2020 were $5,417,303.86. First-year offices averaged $940,994.43 according to Item 19 in the Franchise Disclosure Document.