Amber Medina has been looking for a job for five months, ever since her father, a metal-worker, was laid off and her mom began struggling to support the family of seven on her $15-per-hour job.
But the 17-year-old has yet to find anything permanent, despite sending out resumes and visiting dozens of potential employers, including the clothing stores Old Navy and PacSun. "I'm looking for any job to help my parents," she said.
Medina said that when her father earned $28 per hour, the family lived comfortably, easily making purchases such as cameras and the latest fashions. He recently found work, but it pays less than half what his previous job did.
The change in the family's circumstances is evident daily, such as on trips to the grocery store. "We don't throw everything in the basket like we used to," she said.
Medina, who is graduating this week from Roosevelt High School, is not alone.
With unemployment rates hitting record highs for teens and young adults, these workers are desperately seeking jobs this summer with little success. This year, the mainstays of youth summer employment -- the mall, the movie theaters, diners and fast-food chains -- are increasingly being filled by older workers pushed down the economic ladder by the recession.
Amanda Mercado, 20, said she has applied for about 200 jobs since January, when her employer moved 60 miles away to San Clemente. But she is sympathetic to the plight of older job seekers.
"I would hire a person . . . who has kids over me too," Mercado said last week, as she took a resume-writing course at the El Sereno Library.
Myra Arias, 20, a clerk at a UPS store in Boyle Heights, said she sees adults with extensive job experience asking for applications at the store every day.
"They're older and they're coming into a UPS store to ask for a job," she said. "It's kind of shocking."
Arias said the sour economy has been driven home for her twice recently: When her 29-year-old sister was laid off from her teaching position and when Arias visited the sandwich shop where she had worked during high school and found a friend's mother, laid off from a managerial job, behind the counter.
"It's, like, really tough right now," the West Covina resident said.
Statistics back up these tales. In May, unemployment hit 11.2% for Californians of working age, but it was 27.8% for 16- to 19-year-olds, and 14.3% for 20- to 24-year-olds. The figures represented a nearly 50% jump in teen and young-adult unemployment since May 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
