No summer jobs for teens is a sideshow in this economic crisis | David Howell

The jobs deficit affects teenagers, too, but they need is a university graduate, not flipping burgers at minimum wage

After the dismal employment figures reported by the Labor Department in May, media attention began to focus on the lack of summer jobs for teenagers. According to an AP article released Wednesday, "Once a rite of passage to adulthood, summer jobs are disappearing" - one of the reasons for this is the "adult competition."

A central issue in this debate was the competition immigrant labor. Experts are listed on the serious long-term consequences: less skill, dedication downsizing and increasing inequality.

None of this is bad, but we need a good dose of common sense on priorities. Our crisis labor market - now in its fifth year - focuses on the inability of a large number of adult workers to find full-time jobs that pay living wages. There is a great shortage of summer jobs for teenagers is real, but its importance is nothing compared to the costs of employment problems of older workers. If an adolescent crisis, has much more to do with academic preparation and completion of the university with the availability of summer jobs.

Yes, the job market for young people is likely to be as bad as last summer - we do not know exactly how until June and July appear. But we know that employment rates among adolescents are at a record low. The employment rate of 16-19 year olds has declined since 2000, with similar declines in the huge (2000s and the end of 45% to 36.2% between 2000 and 2004, and 34, 3% to 25 5% between 2007 and 2010). Of particular concern is the sharp decline of 18-19 years, black teens: 31.8% in 2007 to 23% in 2010. If there is good news in these figures is that between 2010 and 2012, these rates at least not worse.

And yes, in the worst slump since the work of the Great Depression, adolescents face increased competition from adults, and some of them are immigrants. But this is not new - For decades, the case study of Harlem restaurants Katherine Newman bright fast food showed that black adolescents face intense competition for adult immigrants. But in a time of scarcity of jobs, we should blame the foreign workers to access adult jobs wrong? For the record, foreign workers have also experienced massive job losses in recent years between May 2007 and May 2012, employment rates overseas fell 65.3% to 61.4% slightly less than a one percentage point decrease in the percentage of native, who rose from 62.6 to 58.3%.

• And finally, yes, it is also true that the use teenage, both during the school year and during the summer, used to be much more common. But this is a legacy of a bygone era, where most live in rural areas and teenagers need to work on the family farm. In our economy high-tech services, more hours per day and weeks per year are spent in the classroom and homework.
• In fact, most other rich countries have more school days longer and shorter holidays. In the early 2000s, 26% of Americans aged 16 to 19 worked while enrolled in school, this figure was only 2% of French adolescents. Their school days are much longer. And no, the explanation is that French children worked as their American counterparts if the jobs were there. In fact, in the years 1960 and 1970, while the French unemployment was very low employment rates of French adolescents enrolled in school also was 2%. "Work" for teenagers should mean no school, part time jobs without minimum wage.

If you want a good indicator of the lack of preparation of our youth for a life of productive, satisfying and well paid, we look beyond the deficit summer jobs for our abysmal graduation rates colleges. Participation of young people (25-29) with a college degree has increased in the 1990s, but stagnated in the 2000s around 30%. While an increasing number of young people who have tried to postsecondary education, poor academic preparation, lack of decent full-time jobs for new graduates, and the rapid increase in tuition rates were graduation surprisingly low. Students who enroll in a four-year college in 2003 had a graduation rate of 55.5% just six years later. Worse, community colleges offer two-year report rate degree associate degree three years only 29.2% for the 2006 year class entering.

Unfortunately, almost no reward for going to college and not finish. The average premium for "college" for high school was $ 1.85 per hour in 1998 to $ 2.03 in 2000 and $ 1.92 in 2007.

Instead of bemoaning our lack of summer jobs, we should focus on what can be done to increase the academic preparation and completion of higher education, while s occupant of the problems of the labor market for workers age. Our limited resources for job creation should focus on the needs of householders, which help to reduce the economic need for young people to supplement the family income. The most obvious (though politically unpopular) solution stimulus spending is focused on fixing the country's rapid collapse of physical infrastructure, and income needs of state and local governments, including layoffs have contributed to the crisis employment.
And what to do for teenagers? Here is a modest proposal. Lets start - in the federal budget next year - by reallocating the majority of which $ 20 billion was spent on agricultural subsidies (which is more of a larger program of welfare for the rich to the high farmers and businesses) to support low-income families by expanding the earned income credit and support to low-income adolescents with good substantial tuition (not ready!) to increase the success rate of University. Only half of what we spend for rich farmers provide good 2m tuition of $ 5,000.