Yahoo Finance, July 2022
With unemployment hitting new lows, employers are turning over rocks these days to find qualified workers. Enter Gen Z—who previously proved their mettle in last summer’s hiring spree. “I think why we’re seeing this summer be an even stronger labor market for young people than last summer, is exactly because employers did rediscover that teenagers can do jobs,” says Alicia Modestino, an economist at Northeastern University.
Data from HR and payroll company Gusto shows that teens aged 15 to 19 years old accounted for almost 10% of new hires in April 2022—a sharp rise from when they made up just 2% in April 2019.