In the summer of 1978, more than half of U.S. teens were working for a paycheck. Now, nearly fifty years later, that’s slipped to 35.5% for teens aged 16 to 19, according to new Pew Research Center data.
What’s going on?
Pew’s data shows that more than half of the 16- to 19-yearold cohort in the in the U.S. held summer jobs for decades – from the mid-1940s through the early aughts. Then came the dot com burst and the Great Recession and paid teen employment dropped to 29.6% by the summers of 2020 and 2011.
Though it rebounded slightly, the COVID-19 pandemic also brought a lull in teen employment as many of the places where teens would work, such as stores and fast food restaurants, were closed amid stay-at-home orders. In summer 2020, teen employment was at 30.8%. Then came another rebound before a new slump in recent years.
While this year’s teen employment figures from Pew are low, they’re not as low as last year’s figures.
“Summer 2026 was expected to be a difficult job market for teens, but the June and July data seems to show otherwise,” said the research center. “Over those two months, an average of 6.2 million teens were working. That’s about 19,500 more than the June-July 2025 average, even though fewer teens overall have been actively seeking work this summer.”
White teens are more likely to be employed than Hispanic, Black or Asian teens at 39% compared to 28%, 27% and 21% respectively. Older teens are also more likely to work, with the average employment rate for 18- and 19-year-olds almost reaching 50% this summer.
Writing for Forbes earlier this summer, Ryan Craig noted that summer camp counselor job postings are down nearly 30% this year and that seasonal hiring in the entertainment and leisure sector (amusement parks, resorts, hotels) is down 70%. According to the new Pew data, more than half of employed teens are working in accommodation and food services this summer. Those include hotels and motels, resorts, restaurants and snack shacks. Another big sector for teen employment was retail trade, representing 21% of all employed teens.
“If that continues in August, it will be the first increase in retail’s share of teen summer jobs since 2020, when 24% of employed teens worked in retail,” said Pew.
Compared to decades past with high levels of teen employment, Pew said that economists have highlighted multiple potential reasons for the decline. These include disappearing low-skill entry level jobs like sales clerks and office assistants, lower teen availability as some schools hold classes in the summer and or enrichment programs take up teens’ time.
However, Craig said that “college admissions officers have had it up to here with essays about volunteering in Costa Rica (or, really, on any summer enrichment program),” so jobs scooping ice cream or folding shirts might seem increasingly attractive to more teens. He also pointed out that the job search is harder now than in the days of a single-sheet paper application.
“For many teens it now resembles a full-blown job search: applying to dozens of jobs online, hearing crickets, and parental involvement to make a useful connection,” Craig said.
As teens participate in the job market at a lower rate, he’s concerned about them missing work skills and work experience that these jobs offer. Still, pressures like inflation, minimum wage issues and long training periods to understand the tech needed to fulfill modern jobs make teen employment a challenge, especially jobs for just the summer. Forbes also covered research from a teen in California that indicates artificial intelligence is likely to cut away even more teen jobs in the coming years.
“For generations, summer jobs were America’s most successful workforce development strategy. But now they’re melting like the ice cream teens are no longer scooping. If we want the next generation to believe in and succeed in work, we need to give them a chance to do some,” said Craig.
