Update on summer teenage labor force participation

In our June 2005 eNewsletter, we ran an in-depth story on summer teenage employment, Where have the teenage workers gone? We have just obtained information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on July 2006 labor force participation by 16- to 19-year-olds. There was a slight increase from 53% participation in July 2005 to 53.5% in July 2006. That miniscule increase does not indicate any change in the overall trend of a declining summer teenage workforce. In fact, August figures show a small decrease in teenage labor force participation, from 48.5% in 2005 to 47.8% in 2006.