City program employs some

By Melanie Cordova

Last September, 18-year-old Gregory Rego finally got his break. After countless applications with no callbacks, Rego was finally hired.

‚ÄúI had been searching for a while, I applied to Good Times, K-Mart, a lot of places,‚Äù said Rego, ‚Äúbut when you don’t have that much past work experience, they don’t want you.‚Äù

Now however, Rego will again have to go into the summer job market. Although his job at Teen Empowerment is still going strong, tuition at Bay State Community College is forcing Rego to go through another round of applications.

Yet this time, finding a job might be even more difficult than expected. According to a report by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, the teen employment rate for this summer has hit a 37-year low. Only 38.9 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds are expected to be employed this summer, according to the report. The weakened labor market and the increased job competition from college graduates and unemployed adults are the leading causes for the employment decline.

Another reason the report gave for the employment drop was the lack of federal teen summer jobs programs. In Somerville, the Mayor’s Summer Jobs program has not been cut back, but teens will still be turned away.

 
In its fifth year, the Mayor’s Summer Jobs Program continues to help Somerville teens find employment in the public and private sectors. Starting in February, city residents ages 16 to 20 begin applying to the program, which then leads to interviews conducted by Nancy Bacci, the city’s youth programming director.

“We ask a lot of questions about their skills and what they want to learn during the interview process,” said Bacci, “we want to assign them to a job where they will be interested in what they are doing. We would not want to place them with the Council on Aging if they were uncomfortable with older people.”

With many of the jobs beginning July 7, many of the accepted teens are starting to learn where they will work. Yet with more than 150 applicants this year, not all who applied are receiving acceptance letters, “every year we get more applicants than we can place,” said Bacci.

Rego is one of the teens that will not be able to take part in the program. Although he was interested in participating, with the cut-off date in May, he found out too late and will now have to continue the job hunt.

While it appears jobs will be scarce for teens, some Somerville businesses that are hiring say that they are still willing to take on teenagers as employees.

‚ÄúI would much rather have a teenager that has had restaurant experience then a college student that has only had desk jobs,‚Äù said Snappy Sushi’s manager, Katie Janik. Owner of Blue Shirt Caf√©, Mike Chen, agrees that experience is important and said, ‚Äúthere are teenagers that are very responsible and there are adults that are very irresponsible, it all depends on the individual.‚Äù