Brother, Can You Spare a Job?

Yesterday was the first day of summer, and classes at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School end tomorrow. But if you're a high school or college student still trying to find a summer job, you're not alone.

Americans ages 16-to-24 are suffering the highest unemployment rate in more than 25 years. It is double its pre-recession rate and double the national average, according to a report published in May by the Economic Policy Institute. Less than 28 percent of the 16-to-24 age group is expected to find jobs, according to a study published last month by Northeastern University.

 "This is the worst that I can remember," Candace Kilmer, a guidance counselor at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, said in a phone interview (all interviews for this piece were conducted by phone).

High school and college students are no longer simply competing with each other for jobs. Instead, they are fighting the millions of out-of-work professionals who lost their jobs in the recession.

"It seems everybody is lowering their expectation levels," said Luke Kostu, also a guidance counselor at the high school. "Jobs a college graduate might not take, they'll take."

For high school and college students seeking summer employment, that means fewer jobs available in doctor's offices, banks and law firms, and more in restaurants, retail, and fast food chains. Even the summer jobs typically reserved for high schoolers – such as lifeguarding or caddying – have received far more applications than in previous years.

"The number of applications we've received have probably doubled," said a clerk at Irma's Hallmark of Fanwood, who asked her name not be used in this article.

Despite the challenges, Kilmer and Kostu said they remain optimistic. "We're feeling a rebound," Kostu said. And both emphasized that jobs are still out there, if students and graduates are willing to work to find them.

Here are their tips for finding employment this summer:

• Check out the listings at Union County College's Job Connection, as well as the classifieds at Patch.com and NJ.com. "Monster, the big ones, you can look, but they generally don't work too well for the local kid," Kostu said.
• Fill out as many applications as possible: "Start at Blue Star Shopping Center and work your way down, stopping at every shop you're remotely interested in," Kostu said. "Make sure you speak with a manager."
• Even if the job description is groan-inducing, "actually act like you're interested," Jeannie DeJesso, co-owner of Double Dipper in Fanwood, said. "The ones that toss their application on the table and don't talk to me...I literally keep those applications in a separate folder."
• Work the connections. Ask parents, friends and relatives – and keep asking: "A friend's father can't help you? Maybe he knows someone who can," Kostu said. "I can't emphasize enough the personal connection – reaching out to the people you know personally, because that networking is how it really happens."
• And of course: "Be dressed appropriately," Kostu said. "I'm not saying wear a tuxedo. A pair of khakis and a collared shirt will be just fine."