Coronavirus: A rude awakening for teens and summer jobs

Like scores of their peers, teenagers Sydney Salas of Edmond and Zach George of Midwest City were fired from their jobs last month, admid the countless closings of “nonessential” businesses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Salas, 18, had worked seven months as a server at Pub W restaurant, while George, 19, was just shy of his one-year anniversary at Dick’s Sporting Goods.

“I was really upset, knowing I had bills,” Salas said. She’s studying medical office technology at Francis Tuttle Technology Center and, since she turned 14, has worked at Braum’s Dairy Stores and elsewhere, helping her single mother with household finances.

Meanwhile, George, who aspires to move out of his parents’ home and get a place of his own, recently bought a 2015 Honda CBR 500 motorcycle, for which he pays $83 monthly to insure, atop the $250 he shelled out to tag the bike and $75 monthly insurance he owes on his 2003 Chevy truck.

He filed for unemployment benefits and is collecting $184 a week from the state, but said “it’s a huge pay cut,” compared with what he's used to taking home.

Today’s economic climate heralds a rude awakening for teens.

During the summer months last year, teen employment nationwide skyrocketed to 1.74 million — the most jobs added since 2011 and the highest gains since 2001. But due to COVID-19, total teen jobs this year may fall to well under one million, according to one workplace authority.

Everything has changed, according to Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. consulting firm.

"If we are able to weather this crisis and get businesses back up and running by June, we may see a surge in teen hiring then. However, teen workers, as well as any job seeker, may be much more wary of accepting public-facing roles,” Challenger said. “Grocery and department stores that are on a hiring binge now come with an inherent risk that did not exist before the outbreak."

Many companies are in a holding pattern and thousands of others aren’t open for business. Some implemented hiring freezes, while others made permanent layoffs or have plans to do so.

Oklahoma Employment Security Commission economist Lynn Gray reports that, among Oklahomans filing for unemployment benefits last month, 22,106 were under age 18 and 23,018 were between the ages of 18 to 24.

Of Oklahoma teens 14 to 18, 41,786 were employed the second quarter of last year, the latest data available, and 47,580 in the third quarter of 2018, according to the OESC.

Oklahoma City human resources expert Jim Farris concedes most summer jobs dried up due to the coronavirus, but still urges teens to seek paid — or unpaid — opportunities now, "even if it’s in the mailroom," in the fields in which they think they want to work.

“You can build a track record and credentials, decide if you really want to work in that industry, and land a paid job this Christmas or next summer,” Farris said. "Don't wait until June when everyone else is looking. Go ahead and apply now."

Sydney Salas, the Edmond teen who was displaced from Pub W in March, recently was hired by a Chick-Fil-A restaurant in Edmond and said she's “beyond grateful to find a job in these hard times.” She was unemployed for a month and applied for six jobs before she found one.

And George, who’s “a little stressed right now and worried,” is buoyed by the fact that his former manager at Dick's Sporting Goods, through texts and calls, has underscored his intention to hire him back when businesses reopen.

Meanwhile, Logen Tucker, 18, of Yukon is glad to have had fluid employment at Walgreen’s the past two-and-a-half years, including as a full-time pharmacy tech since November.

Still Tucker, as a frontline worker, worries about getting sick or infecting her friends and family, and is disappointed that — due to COVID-19 — the start of her nursing training program at Canadian Valley Technology Center has been delayed from April 1 to, hopefully, late August when classes resume.

Tucker said her biggest disappointment is that it’s been far too long since she was able to hold her 6-month-old nephew, Will. She saw him at Easter, but has kept her distance to keep him out of danger, she said.