With school out for the summer, Essie Mosley stopped hitting the books and started punching a clock two weeks ago at Lake Winnepesaukah.
The 16-year-old rising senior at East Hamilton High School began her first job working as a cashier in the cafe of the Rossville, Ga., amusement park.
"I wanted to start earning some money for college, and so far, it's been a lot of fun and a great learning experience," she said.
Mosley and other teens are entering the best job market in more than a decade, with unemployment in Chattanooga this spring falling below 4 percent for the first time since before the Great Recession. Employers trying to fill job vacancies are having to dip deeper into the labor pool and are more likely to employ teens and first-time workers than in previous years.
"The number of teens trying to find jobs always spikes up in the summer, but this year the job market is really strong, with a lot of employers fighting to retain and keep good talent and therefore more likely to bring on teenage workers to get their work done," said Andrew Challenger, vice president of the employment consulting firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. "Baby boomers are starting to retire and that is creating a vacuum that is pulling up workers all through the ranks and opening up more jobs for teenagers."
The job outlook for this summer appears promising even though some traditional teen employers, such as clothing and accessory retailers, are cutting staff and closing stores, Challenger said.
"We're starting to see e-commerce really start to destroy a lot of traditional retail jobs, where we have seen the most cuts this year and are likely to see even more in the future," Challenger said. "Those jobs have traditionally been a major source of employment for teens."
Nonetheless, fast-food restaurants, grocery stores and summertime attractions and camps remain a strong source of seasonal employment for young workers and are opening up plentiful opportunities for most teens.
"We are likely to see more and more opportunities for teens in Tennessee as employers try to fill jobs in an increasingly tight labor market," said Murat Arik, director of the Business and Economic Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University.
Mosley is among more than 300 workers Lake Winnepesaukah recruits each year to staff the amusement park, which is open from May into October. Teens help fill many of the hundreds of local tourism jobs in the summer at Ruby Falls, Rock City and other tourist attractions.
Like many teens, Mosley is juggling work demands and other sports and academic pursuits. As a cheerleader, Mosley usually has attended cheer camps during the summer.
Summer school, church camps, family vacations and sports and school activities have helped to convince a majority of teens not to have summer jobs, reducing the share of teenagers with summer jobs by nearly 40 percent from what it was a generation ago.
Since the 1979 peak, when 71.8 percent of all teens worked in July, the share of those age 16-19 who worked in July dropped to 43.2 percent last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The bureau projects that rate will drop still more over the next decade.
"Teen labor force participation has been on a long-term downward trend, and the decline is expected to continue to 2024," Teresa Morisi, an economist in the Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics, wrote earlier this year in the Monthly Labor Review.
Morisi said much of the decline reflects increased attention to schooling during the traditional academic school year and the fact more students are attending summer school or taking supplemental or advanced placement courses during the summer. Last July, 42.1 percent of teens were enrolled in some type of summer school, or four times the share of students taking summer classes in 1985.
"High-schoolers are taking tougher and more advanced courses, including those specifically designed for college preparation and credit," Morisi said. "Dedicating more time to studies may leave less time for participation in the labor force."
But employers insist having a job also teaches valuable, lifetime skills. Such entry-level jobs for young workers not only provide extra cash, they also can instill a strong work ethic and help develop life-long skills in customer relations and workplace interactions.
Gordon Davenport, managing partner of Hometown Folks LLC, which operates 20 area Burger King restaurants, said teen workers in his restaurants learn lessons in the value of teamwork, structure and schedules, along with developing computer skills required for training and operations in today's restaurants.
"In a restaurant environment, you are going to learn how to deal with the public and fellow employees, and those are critical life skills no matter what career you ultimately pursue," he said. "It's a great entry into the work world and the real world that you might not get in a classroom."
Davenport, whose family helped start the Krystal Corp. in Chattanooga, grew up on Lookout Mountain mowing lawns, and as a teenager worked as a busboy at the former Loft Restaurant. "That taught me a lot about the value of hard work and how to get along with people," he said.
Joe Holland, human resources director at Lake Winnepesaukah for the past 17 years, said the park has provided the first job for hundreds of area workers who have gone on to all manner of jobs.
"Our workers often spend a lot of days in the hot sun, but it's a great learning experience about how to communicate and serve other people," he said.
At Ruby Falls, which has seen an increase in the number of teen applicants this year, managers said workers are taught about customer service and relations, skills essential in most jobs.
"We want to provide our seasonal team members, many of whom are high school and college students, with job skills that will build their resumes and help them gain the soft skills that are highly transferable to most careers," said Lara Caughman, Ruby Falls' corporate communications manager.
Contact staff writer Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.