Summer jobs

What's in a summer job? For a teenager, work experience, a useful way to pass the time, a new responsibility and, not least, cash to spend or save for college.

Some summer occupations offer ways for young people to serve, or at least feel more connected to their community.

Unfortunately, seasonal jobs are more scarce than ever this year, USA Today reports. Only about 25 percent of teens will find work this summer.

Teen employment soared through the 1990s, dropped during the 2001 recession and decreased again in 2007, according to Joseph McLaughlin of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. He said that the summer of 2010 proved to be a "postwar employment low for 16- to 19-year-olds."

In 2001, about half of 16- to 17-year-olds worked summer jobs, noted Betsey Stevenson, chief economist of the Labor Department. "What concerns me most is when I see youth who are idle; not working and not going to school," she told the newspaper.

Several factors work against the creation of summer jobs — including low consumer spending which affects retail sales and strapped municipal budgets that can ill afford to offer employment at parks or pools.

There is no way around it: the job market is tight for seasonal as well as full-time employment.

Many teens will have to work extra hard just to land a summer job which, once attained, may be valued.