It’s a Bleak Job Market for Teens Transitioning to Adulthood (And the Rest of Us)

After spending the last 13 or so years working within the public school, mental health, and healthcare systems to help our autistic-ADHD and inattentive ADHD sons succeed in a world that works best for neurotypical folks, the relief we feel knowing they’re about to walk across that stage and receive their diplomas is almost unquantifiable. There were certainly times when we didn’t know if this would be possible — times marked by meltdowns, shutdowns, educators who refused to teach themselves about autism, and, lest we all forget, a pandemic that felt as if a bomb had gone off in the middle of all our progress. 

Thanks in no small part to my wonderful in-laws, our kids’ excellent mental health and occupational therapy teams, those few teachers and counselors who went out of their way to advocate for our kids, and of course, the boys’ own hard work, here we finally stand just before the finish line. And it’s here that we find ourselves facing a new crisis: the fact that getting even an entry-level job is nowhere as easy as it used to be. 

Times Have Changed

Sometimes when I stop and think about how dramatically the economy and job market has changed since the 1990s when I first filled out job applications at Eastland Mall, it’s like trying to wrap my mind around an alternate reality. It was 1994, and I did what many teenagers did in those days — I just walked right into the mall wearing a nice outfit and went store to store filling out job applications until someone hired me. At $4.25 an hour, the pay wasn’t great, but I could get a new job with hardly any effort anytime I wanted a change of scenery, so I regularly worked between two and three jobs at a time in those days as I was starting out in college. 

As late as 1999, I remember walking into Mexicali Border Cafe to ask if they were hiring and landing a job on the spot. All of that started to change around 2002 in the wake of 9/11, when companies started to tighten up their budgets. Between the housing bubble and tech bubble, recession, and eventual pandemic, it would gradually get harder to land even entry-level jobs over the next couple of decades. And at some point along the way, the ability to fill out an application in-person and physically present yourself to the hiring manager became all but extinct. 

Being the Gen-Xer I am, I didn’t realize this right away when my sons first set out to look for part-time jobs a couple of years ago — that’s right, they’ve been looking for jobs for two full years with no bites. Only one of the places they stopped by actually had printouts of job applications they could fill out, with the rest referring them to the company’s website. 

I also don’t think it’s the lack of work experience keeping them from landing that coveted entry-level fast food or retail job. Both of my sons certainly have more to offer employers than their dad and I did at their age. Noah is an ROTC kid, and Arthur has four years of high school AP under his belt. But beyond academics, both were involved in Tulsa Youth City Council, and Arthur is a member of Eastside Rise Community Council. Both teens have also been hired for moving, lawn care, and car detailing. 

I know from my own part-time work as a professional resume writer that it’s much harder to get your application in front of a manager when submitting online. Most companies, especially the big corporations where you’d find a lot of the entry-level jobs teens are looking for, use applicant tracking AI to filter through these applications, software that is notorious for filtering out quality candidates.

It’s something I also understand on a more personal level. I’ve submitted hundreds of resumes to jobs posted on online job boards in my own search for higher-paying writing opportunities. As a full-time, award-winning web content writer with a specialized background in pop culture and travel, I’ve often puzzled over how many companies I’ve seen that continue to advertise their jobs for months after I apply when I never even get a first-level interview. I’ve heard similar stories from many of my friends and colleagues. I’ve also heard many stories about applicants receiving calls on a job application they submitted so long ago they had forgotten about doing so. And we’ve all seen the employers on social media complaining that they can’t get any qualified applicants — so what gives?

And here’s the kicker — I’ve spoken to more than one hiring manager that I knew personally who said they needed good workers and would be happy to hire them if they submitted an application online, since that’s the only way they can hire candidates. On both occasions, the guys’ applications never ended up before the intended hiring manager…it’s like the internet ate them. 

When a Job Isn’t Really a Job

Between all of the applications they’ve submitted, Arthur and Noah have each been contacted once. After meeting with someone at a job fair, Noah was told he’d been hired for a job only to never actually get put on the schedule. 

Arthur landed one interview, but was told the location wasn’t actually hiring anyone at the time. They’d simply wanted to collect names for backup folks to call in case they happened to need someone at a future date. 

Both experiences were pretty demoralizing for the guys, but they trudged on, eager to keep looking. And looking. And looking. 

To no avail. 

And it certainly doesn’t help that not every job advertised online is a real job at all. 

Over the past year or so, I’ve noticed a trend where I’ll get an inbox with a promising listing from a job board. Despite literally clicking on the job within minutes of its posting, I’ll find a message on the list stating that the job is no longer available. 

And that’s to say nothing of the scammers. If I could stand before Congress today, I would beg them to pass legislation inflicting serious penalties on entities and people using job scams to phish information from unwitting job searchers.

As someone who considers myself fairly knowledgeable about scams, I’ve been shocked at how truly sophisticated some of these attempts are. Just recently, my husband was targeted by someone claiming to be a recruiter for a high-level tech position that just happened to be a perfect fit for his skill set. In a lengthy and highly personalized letter, she outlined the specific job duties and how they aligned with his work experience as a tech content writer, mechanic, AI trainer, and customer service professional with conversational Spanish. It sounded legit, and we were starting to get a little excited — right up until we saw the salary and realized it was too high. 

Leveraging an existing individual with a heavy online presence in recruiting, this individual (or who knows at this point, it could have been an AI) presented a realistic and highly probable job that was tailored to his work experience. But that improbably high salary gave us enough pause to double-check her email — a gmail account, very uncommon among professional recruiters. And upon closer inspection, we realized the actual LinkedIn account of the name this person had used wasn’t currently associated with the company they claimed to be recruiting for. 

Even the Helpers Can’t Help

Desperate to help these guys out, I turned to social media to ask if anyone had suggestions for a company that was hiring near East Tulsa, Broken Arrow, or midtown. Because Tulsa is full of awesome people, lots of folks were quick to offer up suggestions — some of them places where they were the hiring manager and would be glad to help out. 

But even after filling out those applications, these guys haven’t gotten any calls. Heck, their 15-year-old sister has landed more work experience at this point thanks to her opportunities on set with “The Lowdown.” 

And sure, they can grab a mower and drag it up and down the block to see if anyone will shell out $30 for some lawn work. But as soon-to-be 18-year-old high school graduates, they need to be picking up real-world work experience that can help them be more hirable in the future. This is especially important for neurodivergent individuals since the stats on long-term work success for autistic and ADHD folks can run on the grim side. 

Are your neurotypical or neurodivergent teen and young adult kids finding it difficult to land a job? I would love to hear your tips, because we are at a loss. Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading!