Local teens are stepping up their job seeking methods. The job market continues to shrink for them as adults apply for jobs that teens typically fill.
A third of working-age teens in the state are unemployed, according to figures released by North Carolina Employment Security Commission. The 27-percent teen unemployment rate in 2010 is the fifth highest in the nation.
The national teen unemployment rate was 24.2 percent.
With a troubled economy, more adults are depending on minimum-wage jobs as primary or secondary income while seniors are filling those jobs to supplement their retirement income
For May, the overall unemployment rate in Burke County remained at 12.1 percent for the third straight month. The labor force grew by 52 people, but was smaller than in January and May 2010.
Of the 37,769 people in the labor force, 4,575 are unemployed. Compared that to May 2010 when the labor force was 39,070 with 5,265 unemployed (13.5 percent).
Dallas Stoudenmire, owner of Chick-fil-A in Morganton, said he gets a lot more follow-up calls from teens than in the past.
Keith Flynn, store manager of Ingles on Carbon City Road, echoed the finding.
“It seems like it’s hard for (teens) to find a job, and they will come around more than they used to,” Flynn said.
While Flynn hasn’t seen an increase in teenaged applicants, Stoudenmire said applications from teens are up about 25 percent.
Flynn said applications from adults are up about 50 to 60 percent at Ingles, while Stoudenmire said adult applications have stayed about the same.
“I have not seen an increase in adult applicants over teenage applicants,” Stoudenmire said.
Flynn said at Ingles, teens can only work at the registers, but adults are more flexible to place, so at the moment Ingles is hiring a few more adults than teens.
But teens, and the economy, are losing out on more than a paycheck.
Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities, said there are long-term costs for the economy because teens aren’t learning working skills.
And that’s influenced Paul Stone, the president and chief executive of the N.C. Restaurant Association.
Stone said he was against raising the minimum wage of $7.25 in part because “more teenagers will not get their first work experience in favor of adults who have more skills.”
Overall, unemployment rates in May throughout the state remained the same in 16 counties, decreased in 40 counties and increased in 44 counties, the North Carolina Employment Security Commission reported.
The Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton metropolitan statistical area unemployment rate was 11.9 percent, the second highest of the 14 areas. It was second to Rocky Mount, which had an unemployment rate of 12.7 percent.
Richard Craver of Media General contributed to this story.
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