US companies focus on teenagers

Walmart is arguably the most employee company in the world with its 2.2 million employees. In the United States there are 1.4 million employees but only a small part, about 25 thousand are of high school age. And it is on this age group that many companies, including technology companies, are starting to focus, even part time, by offering the payment of university fees and also a sort of supplementary training. Hiring employees at the beginning of their careers, as Starbucks, McDonald’s, Disney and many technology start-ups are doing, offers advantages in terms of easier training even if in the US adolescents are no longer used to working as before: while in the in the seventies almost 45% worked part-time, in 2018 the national average dropped to about 29%. The latest OECD Dream Jobs report? Teenagers’ Career Aspirations and the Future of Work has tried to identify which professions are most desired by teenagers today, revealing how expectations have not changed so much over time and not so much technological: the profession most desired by girls is that of the doctor (in 2000 was the teacher), followed by that of teacher (in 2000 he was the doctor). For the boys it is that of engineer (in 2000 he was the manager), in second place the manager (in 2000 he was the computer scientist). An age group, therefore, that of fifteen year olds who is not only moving away from their first work experiences, perhaps summer or part time, but which does not show great mobility of thought compared to twenty years ago. However, there are startups specifically dedicated to work for 13/18-year-olds. Like the Swiss JobSeekers, a portal that intends to find a job for young people from Ticino. In an interview with Tio.ch, the founders explain: “The idea was born when we realized how difficult it is to find work for young people in Switzerland. We started building a platform to simplify the process. This platform connects young people looking for work quickly and easily with employers who need extra help. (…) We mainly receive job requests in the sectors most involved in the tourism sector such as: the waiter, the lifeguard and the ice cream man. (…) We focus on keeping our customers updated through social networks such as Instagram and LinkedIn where we often organize challenges, quizzes and surveys for our followers. “Returning to the USA, an April 2021 employment situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 266,000 new jobs were registered in that month, of which over 250,000 for people aged between 16 and 19. Teens have become an invaluable asset when it comes to keeping businesses running. On the one hand, teenagers can put some money away for holidays and college, on the other hand, starting early to experiment in the job market can allow them to find out in the field which industries will be more profitable in the future and find themselves, at the end of their studies, even with some experience to be included in their CV. Of course, these are mainly unskilled jobs and, even in the technology sector, the open positions are mostly in logistics but it is still a matter of making contact with possible relationships that can transform over time. To hook this specific age group, tech companies have therefore begun to include specific bonuses and, precisely in this post-pandemic period, the cards are reshuffling, offering new job opportunities for them too.