The Times

Wanted: SUMMER JOBS FOR TEEN-AGERS

MAX THARPE Modern times have brought many swimming pools, and with them go "pool sitters." CAMPBELL HAYS More than a million teen-agers will harvest crops this summer. Wanted: SUMMER JOBS FOR TEEN-AGERS BY LYDIA RATCLIFF Six million of them will be looking for work—everything from cat-sitting THIS JUNE, when school doors and schoolbooks are shut tight, more teen-agers than ever before will be looking for work in a world where the demand for their services seems to be lessening. A million of them, it is true, will be needed to harvest crops—strawberries in California, corn in Kansas, vegetables in New England. Hundreds of thousands of them will wait on tables and watch over children everywhere. Resort areas will hire them in force and so will ice-cream manufacturers and soft-drink bottlers. Modern times have brought some new jobs onto the scene. "Pool-sitting" is one. Last year, California's Van Nuys Valley saw 471 new swimming pools built in a single month and a part-time life guard is now almost a necessity. The shortage of domestic help has brought on a boom in summer baby sitters. But modern times have also taken some traditional summer jobs away. Electric golf carts and wheel-your-owns are replacing many caddies. There are fewer corner grocery stores to hire delivery boys. Each youngster who tries to find work this summer will face not only mechanical competition but also competition from the millions of other 'teen-agers battling for a sharply limited number of jobs. To look at the dark side of the picture, the 1961 job market will be the tightest in more than a decade. Nearly a third—more than a million—of those who try will not get a job. And the situation is going to get worse: war babies have only begun to flood the labor market, just as they are overcrowding the schools. Says Eli Cohen of the National Committee on Employment of Youth, "The problem is frankly critical." But on the brighter side, in spite of the statistics, great numbers of teen-agers should be al [?] to employ themselves gainfully, or at least usefully, this summer—if they know how to go about it. Many organizations are ready to back them in their efforts and help find jobs. The National Committee on Employment of Youth studies the problems of youth employment and solicits help from industry, government, and private citizens. The Public Employment Service has more than 1,800 offices, in every state, to help young people get jobs. Youth Employment Services across the U.S. perform a similar function. Several large industrial firms, banks, and insurance companies have set up summer training programs for future full-time recruits. International Business Machines, for example, has encouraged the electronic bent by hiring a few exceptional

16 Suburbia Today, March 1961