Note that much teen employment data covers only ages 16-19 – it is far more common for those age 18 and 19 to have a job than for a high school student to have a job. Thus, the % of teens enrolled in school, and who are working, is likely lower than what is indicated in this chart.
Many teens, who do work, work only during the summer – and not during the school year. This paper suggests that less than 1 in 4 teens who work, worked during the school year.
Note that many papers produce widely different survey results due to:
- what age ranges they select – many use 16-19, in which half of the cohort have graduated!
- some use old government data that surveyed “youth employment” which they defined as age 16-24 – which obviously is mostly surveying young adults no longer in school
- some measure who worked during the year – but that 4x to 3x more teens work only during the summer than during the school year
Consequently, the data on this is a mess. It seems likely that the % of students who worked during the school year has dropped from the 1970s/80s to the present – but by how much is subject to the wide variation in survey results. (It occurs to me that locally, I rarely see teens working in public facing jobs – sure, they could be working behind the scenes. Jobs like “newspaper delivery” kids of the past, no longer exist.)
This data comes from: Teen labor force participation before and after the Great Recession and beyond : Monthly Labor Review: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
