For generations of Americans, getting a summer job was almost automatic. Teenagers worked at pools, restaurants, amusement parks, grocery stores, camps, and ice cream shops. Those jobs were rarely glamorous, but they gave young people spending money, responsibility, work experience, and their first taste of adulthood.
Now, that ladder into the workforce appears to be breaking apart.
The summer of 2026 is shaping up to be one of the worst teen job markets since the federal government began tracking the numbers in 1948. Experts project that only about 790,000 teen summer jobs will be filled this year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. If that forecast holds, it would mark the weakest summer hiring season for teens in nearly 80 years.
The obvious question is why.
Inflation, economic uncertainty, weaker tourism, automation, and changing teen priorities all play a role. But throughout the reporting, one factor repeatedly emerges as a major pressure point: rising labor costs driven by higher minimum wages and “living wage” expectations.
The evidence increasingly suggests that while higher minimum wages are not the only cause, they may be pricing many inexperienced teenagers out of the very entry-level jobs that once helped them get started.
The First Rung of the Ladder Is Disappearing
Teenagers traditionally got hired because they were inexpensive entry-level workers. Employers understood they would require training and supervision, but the lower wage costs made the arrangement worthwhile.
That economic equation appears to be changing.
Restaurant owners, camp operators, and hospitality businesses repeatedly say they are becoming more selective because labor has become too expensive to gamble on inexperienced workers.
California may offer the clearest example. The state’s teen jobless rate has climbed above 21%, nearly double the national average. At the same time, fast food wages in many parts of the state have climbed to $20 an hour or higher.
Jot Condie, president and CEO of the California Restaurant Association, said employers still like hiring young workers, but higher wages are clearly changing hiring behavior.
“When you’re talking about $20 an hour, $21 an hour, a lot of employers may have a second thought about hiring a 16-year-old who doesn’t have any work experience,” Condie said.
That statement goes directly to the heart of the issue. Businesses are not charities. If labor costs rise dramatically, employers become more cautious about whom they hire. And when deciding between an inexperienced teenager and an adult with prior work experience, many employers now choose the safer option.
Condie admitted as much, saying, “A lot of restaurants are saying we can’t afford to hire someone who isn’t experienced.”
That sentence may explain much of what teenagers are experiencing this summer.
The Numbers Are Brutal
The statistics surrounding teen employment are increasingly alarming.
Last summer, teen hiring already collapsed by more than 25% compared with the previous year. This year could be even worse.
Employers in the entertainment and leisure sector, historically one of the biggest sources of teen employment, plan to fill 70% fewer roles than last year. That includes resorts, amusement parks, camps, hotels, and recreation businesses that traditionally hired thousands of young workers.
Camp counselor postings on Indeed are down nearly 30%.
Meanwhile, applications for New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program exploded past last year’s record of 200,000 applications for only 100,000 openings.
At a Cape Cod ice cream shop called Sundae School Homemade Ice Cream, hundreds of teen applications poured in for just 50 jobs.
The imbalance is obvious. There are far more teens looking for work than businesses willing to hire them.
Andy Challenger described the trend bluntly: “The collapse in entertainment and leisure hiring announcements is one of the clearest signals we have. That is exactly the kind of work teens depend on.”
Teen employment once topped 50% during the 1970s and 1980s. Today it sits around 35%.
That is not a small cultural shift. It is the disappearance of millions of early work opportunities.
Businesses Are Doing the Math
The problem is not always that employers dislike teens. In many cases, businesses simply believe the economics no longer work.
Restaurant operator Itai Ben Eli, who owns eateries across Texas and Louisiana, explained that summer hires require extensive training. By the time younger teens become productive, summer is often nearly over.
“It takes at least 45 days to 60 days for somebody to settle in,” Ben Eli said. “So I tend to hire older teenagers who can spend a few months with us after having that basic training.”
Higher wages magnify that concern. Training an inexperienced worker becomes far more expensive when labor costs are already elevated.
Even amusement parks are scaling back. Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari in Indiana admitted it used to intentionally overstaff but is no longer doing so. Businesses squeezed by inflation, fuel costs, and economic uncertainty are watching labor expenses more closely than ever.
In Missouri, lawmakers are now openly debating whether teen workers should receive a lower minimum wage than adults. One proposed bill would lower the wage for workers under 18 from $15 an hour to $12.30.
The proposal emerged after business owners complained that rising labor costs were making it harder to hire teens.
Republican State Sen. Joe Nicola argued that “entry-level jobs are fundamentally different from full-time adult employment” and noted that labor is often the single largest expense for small businesses.
Critics argue that lower youth wages are unfair and that many teens rely on income to help support their families. But the very existence of the debate shows how concerned employers have become about labor costs.
Teenagers Are Adapting and Hustling
Despite the discouraging environment, many teenagers are refusing to give up.
Some are treating the search like a professional networking campaign. Parents are contacting friends, coaches, and colleagues for leads. Teens are applying to dozens of jobs, following up directly with managers, and asking interviewers what they can improve.
Others are turning to side gigs and informal work.
Dog walking, babysitting, internships, camp jobs, cashier positions, and activity-center work are becoming fallback options for teens who cannot land traditional retail or restaurant jobs.
One bright spot is lifeguarding. Advertised lifeguard openings have jumped 78% compared with last year.
Still, many teenagers describe the process as exhausting and discouraging. One California student with strong academics, athletics, and leadership credentials applied to roughly 20 jobs before finally landing one. Another teen who applied to more than a dozen positions said many employers never even called back.
Increasingly, even getting a basic summer job requires persistence, networking, references, and luck.
Did We Price Teens Out of the Workforce?
The evidence suggests the answer may partly be yes.
Higher minimum wages are not the sole reason teen jobs are disappearing. Economic uncertainty, automation, inflation, weaker tourism, and changing social habits all matter. But the repeated comments from employers are difficult to ignore.
Businesses say labor costs are too high. Employers say inexperienced workers are harder to justify at $20 an hour. Restaurants say they cannot afford long training periods for short-term hires. Seasonal businesses are cutting staff instead of overhiring.
The result is that many teenagers are losing access to the first rung of the economic ladder.
Ironically, policies designed to raise pay for low-wage workers may also be making it harder for young people to become workers in the first place.
