LANSING – Teens looking for jobs this summer season will still have to face competitive situations as the overall jobs market improves and more people go into the labor market, state officials said, but even so, the unemployment rate for teens should drop compared to 2015.
The state is projecting a teen unemployment rate of 17.5 percent. If the unemployment rate does hit that level, it will be 1.2 percentage points less than the 18.7 percent rate for teens during 2015.
There is still, though, some uncertainty in the percentage of teens looking for work during the summer. In 2015, the percentage of teens looking for work out of the whole population increased for the first time in 14 years with some 41.8 percent of teens participating in the labor market. In 2001, 59.7 percent had sought work, but both in Michigan and nationally, the percentages of teens seeking work during the summers fell during the recessions and continued falling.
If the state does see a 17.5 percent teen jobless rate, that would mean an estimated 49,400 teens would have sought work and not found a job. In contrast, some 232,900 teens would have jobs.
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