A lack of work experience, skill and understanding of basic expectations leads a majority of employers to prefer older workers: Many college grads struggle to land jobs due to a lack of preparedness, study finds
My suspicion is this is an issue for a subset and that subset is larger than in past generations. The historical data supports this conclusion:
- In about 1979, about 60% of teens held a job (age 16-19).
- This fell to 35% by 2019 and is now 27.5%.
- It appears that data is not collected for those under age 15.
Demographics: Percent of teens who work at jobs – Coldstreams
In other words, fewer new grads/workers have prior work experience.
The survey claims many young applicants dress unprofessionally for interviews, have unreasonable expectations for how much they should be paid, have difficulty organizing their daily work responsibilities, and often “act entitled” – and have a lack understanding of the basics of the work world and getting things done.
I was likely an outlier, but I was working at neighborhood yard jobs by age 10, worked in a retail store by age 14 or 15, and had a grunt job in a hospital by age 17. Once in college, I started to work in my field of study – “student programming consultant” (at the university) and eventually summer work at an area tech company. Many schools also now require students to engage in “volunteer” (it’s not volunteer when its mandated) public service functions too, which reduces time they might have had for a part time job.
Today I think for college bound students, working as a teen is probably a mistake. It makes little sense to work at minimum wage versus excelling in school and earning scholarships which have far larger return on investment than minimum wage in a fast-food restaurant.
