Summer of Their Discontent : School’s Out, but the Student Job Picture Is Not Encouraging

Martin Toumaian will make popcorn at Pacific Theatres’ Northridge complex. Sara Gregory will teach swimming at the East Valley YMCA in North Hollywood. And Amy Means will help test roller coasters as part of her duties as a ride foreman at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia.

School’s out and thousands of young people like Toumaian, 18, Gregory, 16, and Means, 20, have traded their books for the burger flippers, office mail carts, theme park costumes, shovels and brooms often associated with the typical summer job.

But even as the cost of college tuition, high-tech sneakers and CDs soar, for many other youths, this will be a summer of discontent.

The Southland economy is improving, but the youth job market is not. Youth unemployment, always two to three times the overall jobless rate, is close to a five-year high, according to state statistics. The unemployment rate for workers 16 to 19 years old was 24% in April; it usually goes up three to five percentage points in summer.

Part of the problem is due to corporate cost cutting, but many young people are also finding themselves in competition with older unemployed workers.

A key government summer program for low-income youth has been retooled to make the experience more valuable to students, but the result in some counties is that the program can hire fewer people.

Erick Dominguez, 16, a serious, soft-spoken Reseda High School student, needs to work to help support his parents and two siblings. His mother is a housekeeper, his father a sewing machine operator. Erick said he would take any job, if he could just find one.

He has applied at several fast-food restaurants. “They say they are not hiring, or they don’t hire you at 16,” he said.

The San Fernando Valley, in particular, is still feeling the effects of the Jan. 17 earthquake. For example, most stores in the heavily damaged Northridge Fashion Center mall remain closed, wiping out about 2,500 jobs, according to Lloyd Miller, the mall’s general manager. Many of those jobs were retail posts traditionally held by younger workers.

At Los Angeles High School, only about a third of students looking for summer jobs have found one, said Betsy Alkaly, a career adviser.

Despite news of an economy on the rebound, “we don’t see it here in terms of job offers,” Alkaly said. “But the kids remain pretty optimistic. I don’t think they’re terribly dejected.”

Knott’s Berry Farm, Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Studios Hollywood say they will have about the same number of summer slots as last year, but Disneyland took on only 1,000 extra workers this summer--hundreds fewer than last year.

“People are holding on to their jobs longer, so there is lower turnover” and fewer summer opportunities for students, Disneyland spokesman John McClintock said.

But overall, the summer job picture looks good in Orange County because tourism is generally healthier than last year, said Eleanor Jordan, a county labor market analyst.

For students who do land positions this summer, the jobs may not be relevant to their career plans. And the competition for what is available is intense.

Harold Gordon, senior director of Camp Kinneret Day Camp and Sunny Skies Day Camp in Agoura Hills, said he is getting 10 applications for every camp counseling and other staff job he adds each summer.

Monica Johnson, a 22-year-old senior at UCLA who hopes to be a psychiatrist, spent a long morning auditioning in a sweltering hotel meeting room with dozens of other would-be Universal Studios tour guides last month. She didn’t get that job but she is still being considered for other positions at Universal Studios. “I have to keep working my other jobs, and I thought this one would give me more fun,” said Johnson, referring to part-time jobs she held during the school year.

Among the bright spots for summer job-seekers are a variety of interesting positions that pay more than minimum wage. Josh Seat, 23, of Valencia, a graduate student at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, will earn $7 an hour as a “greeter” welcoming customers at the Magic Mountain restaurant and singing to them with the restaurant staff several times a day.

“There are not a lot of jobs that would keep my interest,” Seat said. “I thought this one would.”

And some students who impressed their bosses last summer have been asked to return this year. Jon Speier, a 21-year-old Woodland Hills resident, is returning to work for Encino-based Bogard Temps Inc. Speier worked in customer service, bill collections and fraud investigations for a cellular phone company, and it wants him back. Speier, a student and sprinter on the track team at Azusa Pacific University, said he tries to earn and save money from his summer job so that he doesn’t have to work during school and can instead focus on studying and running.

Internships may also be a bright spot in this summer’s job market. Mary Williams, a Cal State Northridge counselor, said the stronger economy nationally means summer internships for college students are up this year. The CSUN career center has about three times as many companies advertising internships locally and elsewhere this year compared with two years ago.

And at UCLA’s Placement and Career Planning Center, “the picture on summer jobs and internships is actually better than it’s been in several years,” said Tina Oakland, associate director of the center.

About 400 students have been placed so far, and more than 1,500 internships are still available, she said.

But most of those internships--especially non-technical ones--are unpaid. However career-oriented college students say the experience is worth more than a paycheck.

“I would do an internship with minimal pay because it’s such a good resume builder,” said Gina Shaw, a UCLA junior from Covina who is studying math and applied management. She was hoping to work for a Big Six accounting firm but was surprised to learn that those jobs had been filled in February and March.