Getting a summer job is getting increasingly harder every year and signs of improvement and are no where sight. For one reason or another the jobs that were once seen as just for the teen generation are now almost impossible to get. Even the minimum wage job at Mc Donald’s has competition. Some blame the economy, some blame their age, but all can agree that the once simple to get summer jobs that we used to see on TV are gone.

There are a few reasons why teens can’t get jobs and many are really not our fault. One explanation is that the economy is so bad that the competition to get a job is no longer between teens and college students; adults are competition too. About ten years ago, teens might have complained that they didn’t get their desired summer job because a college student ended school earlier, applied earlier and got the job before the high school student could have. Things are different these days. Now high school students are at the bottom of what could be called the economic totem pole. College students get their try before the high school students and adults have all year to compete for jobs. We look at these jobs as summer jobs, but the economy has left some adults to look at these jobs as their means to survive. For example I was in Wendy’s the other day and I happened to sit in the back where the Manager was conducting interviews. At one point or another, we might have thought of Wendy ’s as a summer job where a teenager would work, but for the adults that were there, this was a full time position for the entire year. I would have thought there would be mostly minors waiting to get interviews, but I was wrong. Only two applicants were minors and the rest were adults.

A person’s connections are another reason why some are having such a tough time getting jobs. Even some of my friends agree with me on this point. By having a reference in the store you want to work, your employee friend can give you the edge you need to get the job. This problem faces not only teens, but everyone. My brother, who is a college student, says from his experience that “you are going to see your jobs go to those with connection no matter how your resumè looks.” No one can really disagree when you think about it; a business owner is more likely to give a job to someone that he or she has heard good things about, because what does a resumè really say about a person aside from your accomplishments? I for one agree that if I was a business owner, and I had an employee who I trusted recommend someone for an open position, I would have enough trust to employ that person who was hardly a stranger because of his or her connection compared to a complete stranger.

The current situation of summer jobs doesn’t provide anyone with a clear image of the future. You could say the government even has blurry vision when it comes to finding where to start fixing this situation. Now if only if there was such thing as a Visine that can cure the economy. All we could do is try our best to compete in the job market and help one another to network connections.