Summer Job

A summer job is a traditional rite of passage for most teens, but this year that may be passing them by. Nationwide, teens are facing the most difficult summer hiring season in decades, experts say. The unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds hovered at 26.4% last month — the highest May figure since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking it in 1948 — as older workers continued snapping up jobs normally held by the...

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti vowed Tuesday to rebuild a summer jobs program for young people that was scaled back as public funding dropped sharply over the last two years. Garcetti made his pledge to expand the “Hire LA's Youth” program at a South Los Angeles event his office organized to showcase his plans to stimulate the city's economy. Officials said the jobs program will enable more than 5,000 city residents, ages 14 to 21, to earn $8 an hour this summer by working part time for employers throughout the city over the next six weeks.

Teenagers looking for summer work will have a better chance of finding it this year, according to outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The improving job market, the firm said, has eased competition for the low-skilled, low-paying jobs that traditionally go to teens on school break. The employment environment for high-schoolers and other young folks has made a dramatic recovery since falling to record lows in 2010, when the number of 16- to 19-year-olds working during the summer months was at its slimmest level since 1949.

The gig: Jeremy Verba, 49, became chief executive of online dating site EHarmony Inc. in August 2011, replacing Greg Waldorf. The Santa Monica company matches singles looking for long-term relationships; 34 million people have used the service since it was launched in 2000. The company uses "relationship science" to predict compatible matches and says that on average, 542 people marry every day in the United States as a result of being matched on EHarmony. Education: Received a bachelor's degree in architecture from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Application interviews will be conducted Tuesday for a city-sponsored jobs program for youths from the Northwest area of the city. Interviews for the 50 summer jobs for college youths, ages 17 to 21, will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Jackie Robinson Community Center, 1020 N. Fair Oaks Ave. The $120,000 program will use federal Community Development Block Grants to place students in city offices.

More than 100 employers will participate in five summer job fairs for teens and young people Saturday. The job fairs will be held simultaneously in Anaheim, Laguna Niguel, Irvine, Santa Ana and Garden Grove from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Applicants for summer jobs should bring their birth certificate, Social Security card and photo identification to the fair, which is being sponsored by the state Employment Development Department. Information: (714) 518-2359.

The summer job outlook in Orange County is strong and stable, according to a recent survey by Manpower Inc., the world's largest temporary help firm. The study found that 33% of Orange County companies polled expected to boost their payrolls during July, August and September, while 59% anticipated maintaining their current work force levels. Only 8% said they intended to cut back.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other civic leaders announced their intention Monday to expand this summer's jobs programs to reach as many as 10,000 teenagers and young adults. Jobs provided through Hire LA's Youth 2007 are aimed at applicants between the ages of 14 and 24. Information about the jobs programs can be found at www.hirelayouth.com

Editor's Note: The Times has selected three Los Angeles-area youths to write about their summer job experiences and impressions. Their essays will appear over the next few weeks. Some of her friends thought Claudia Rios should take it easy before beginning college this fall. Instead, the 17-year-old South-Central Los Angeles resident took a summer job at a medical center near Hollywood. "My friends say, 'Can't you just kick back?' " said Rios, an aspiring physician.

Kids seeking summer jobs haven't had it this good in a generation. With the unemployment rate at 4.3%, a 28-year low, the market for ambitious young workers is "up and booming," said Adele Scheele of Cal State Northridge's Career Center. "Jobs are up in every area." Debt Reduction The job market may be hot, but some jobs always pay more than others--probably the ones you didn't prepare for in school.

Had the recession never happened, there would now be an additional 2.7 million jobs for young workers, according to a report this week. Instead, there's a Chicago-sized hole in the employment market for people between 16 and 24 years old, according to nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group Young Invincibles. And there's a good chance that gap will never close, to potentially devastating effect, according to the "No End in Sight?" report . “The scary thing is that the recession may never end for young people,” said Rory O'Sullivan, policy director for the group, in a statement.

Looks like the mall will be stuffed with teenagers this summer - and they won't just be shopping. They'll be folding clothes at Forever 21, serving up burgers in the food court and valeting cars in the parking lot as the employment market for 16- to 19-year-olds gets off to its strongest start since 2006. Nearly 160,000 teens landed jobs in May, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That's more than double the 71,000 teen jobs added last May. In 2010, employers hired on just 6,000 additional teens in May, kicking off the worst summer for youth employment since 1949.

Teenagers looking for summer work will have a better chance of finding it this year, according to outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The improving job market, the firm said, has eased competition for the low-skilled, low-paying jobs that traditionally go to teens on school break. The employment environment for high-schoolers and other young folks has made a dramatic recovery since falling to record lows in 2010, when the number of 16- to 19-year-olds working during the summer months was at its slimmest level since 1949.

The rows of experiments at the Los Angeles County Science Fair began with a simple question: Is a dog's mouth cleaner than a human's? Answer: It isn't. How about this: Is the closest living relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex a chicken? Not quite. It's the red junglefowl, a wild chicken. Or: Could a sixth-grader build a hovercraft? He could, capable of carrying both him and his mother. But he couldn't figure out how to propel his creation. "I read that some fire extinguishers would work," he wrote, "but my parents wouldn't let me try. " These results and many others were presented by more than 1,000 young scientists whose work for the 62nd annual science fair was on display at the Pasadena Convention Center on Saturday.

Heavynle Ceasar headed to New York for college last week. She took one big suitcase, a tiny heart-shaped pillow for the flight and the boundless good wishes of countless strangers whose gifts are helping ease her passage through grief. Heavynle is the Lawndale teenager I wrote about in June after she lost both her parents in one torturous moment: One week before her prom, two months from graduation, Heavynle's father shot her mother to death and then killed himself in the family's condo.

Quintin Dailey, a brilliant but troubled basketball player who starred at the University of San Francisco, was a first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bulls in 1982 and had a stint with the Clippers in the late '80s, died Monday in Las Vegas. He was 49. Dailey died of hypertensive cardiovascular disease, according to the Clark County coroner's office. A 6-foot, 3-inch guard, Dailey played 10 seasons in the NBA and made the 1982-83 All-Rookie team with the Bulls. He signed with the Clippers as a free agent in 1986 and played three seasons in L.A. before moving to Seattle in 1990.

Garbed in hard hats and dust masks, 30 San Diego youngsters spent a 15-minute break Friday listening to the radio and trying to stay cool under a glaring sun. But the "back to work" order of a supervisor soon ended the break. As participants of the Youth Housing Opportunity Program (YHOP), these youngsters have traded summer days of leisure for the experience of renovating a dilapidated house.

Even as the school year ends, many secondary school students have yet another big assignment on their minds: finding a summer job. In addition to providing income, summer employment can be educational. Students learn skills needed for future jobs and discover which fields of work are right (and wrong) for them. And it can help in choosing next year's elective subjects more wisely. Some kinds of summer work can also count as credit toward high school graduation.

A summer job is a traditional rite of passage for most teens, but this year that may be passing them by. Nationwide, teens are facing the most difficult summer hiring season in decades, experts say. The unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds hovered at 26.4% last month — the highest May figure since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking it in 1948 — as older workers continued snapping up jobs normally held by the...

Teens are hitting the malls again, and not just to hang out and shop. Job-hunting season for the summer is underway as teens scramble for coveted positions at their favorite apparel retailers, frozen yogurt shops and department stores. The best jobs are often filled by spring break. This year, with the nation's unemployment rate at 9.7% in March, expect the job market to be especially crowded, analysts say. Not only do teens have to compete with college students and recent graduates, they'll also be up against a wave of out-of-work adults ready to snap up even temporary positions.