Metro Denver Ranks High For Teen Summer Jobs

DENVER, CO – No more teachers, no more books — the final bell before summer break is drawing near, and many metro Denver teens are hunting for summer jobs, whether it’s to save some cash for college or go out on a nice date. Whatever the reason, a new report shows that some teens will find more success than others based on where they live.

The personal finance site WalletHub compared the summer job market in 182 cities across the country, including the 150 most populous. Metro Denver, with a total score of 66.41 out of 100 possible points, ranked third overall in the country for summer work, just ahead of Dover, Delaware and behind Scottsdale, Arizona.

The website Snagajob.com has a "teen jobs" section that lists employers looking for teens.

Here’s the breakdown for Denver:

• Youth job market rank: 4
• Social environment and affordability rank: 8

WalletHub looked at 21 employment outlook measurements to come up with the rankings. This included median income of part-time workers, availability of summer jobs and rent for a one-bedroom apartment.

Two cities from Florida and Delaware cracked the top 10, including Orlando, the No. 1 ranked city for summer jobs in the country. Orlando had the 2nd-best youth job market and ranked 13th for social environment and affordability.

Here are the top 10 cities and their scores:

1. Orlando, FL — 68.66
2. Scottsdale, AZ — 68.15
3. Denver, CO — 66.41
4. Dover, DE — 65.59
5. Wilmington, DE — 63.17
6. Portland, ME — 62.96
7. Las Vegas, NV — 62.51
8. Austin, TX — 62.40
9. Columbia, MD — 62.09
10. Fort Lauderdale, FL — 61.77

Among the other notable findings: Portland, Maine, had the highest labor-force participation rate of people ages 16-24, while Bismarck, North Dakota, had the lowest unemployment rate in that age group. Miami, meanwhile, had the highest availability of both summer jobs and internships.

About 21 million Americans 16-24 years old were employed from April to July 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In July, when youth employment typically peaks, 55 percent of young people were employed. The unemployment rate for youths was 9.2 percent.

But according to research by the Pew Research Center, teen summer employment in the U.S., which once sat between 50 and 58 percent in the decades leading up to 2000, fell to about 35 percent in 2017.

The organization looked at the average employment of 16- to 19-year-olds in June, July and August using BLS data. While teen employment sharply increased in the summer months dating to the 1940s, that pattern began to change after a recession in 1990 and then sharply decreased after another recession in 2001.

Research suggested the drop could be due to a declining number of low-skill and entry-level jobs, such as sales clerks and office assistant, Pew said. Moreover, more schools let out in late June and restart before Labor Day, and many students take advantage of the summer months to complete community service projects to satisfy graduation requirements and bolster college applications.

The study considered only the city proper in each case and excluded the surrounding metro area. Data came from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, ManpowerGroup, Chmura Economics & Analytics, Council for Community and Economic Research, Indeed.com, Internships.com, Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Conference of State Legislatures, Numbeo, Center for Neighborhood Technology and WalletHub’s own research.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report