Determinants of Teenage Employment

Some knowledge of the factors which determine the demand for teenage labor and the processes by which supply adjusts is required if programs to increase employment opportunities for younger persons are to be effective. This paper examines the demand for teenage labor and tests a composite of three hypotheses on cross-sectional data: the flexible labor market hypothesis, the queue hypothesis, and the view that teenagers are separate and nonversatile factors of production. Evidence in support of the first two hypotheses, but not the third, is offered. A number of labor market variables were employed in the analysis of factors affecting teenage employment. Particular attention was given to the heavy concentration of teenage employment in key activities. Despite the apparent limited industrial versatility of teenagers, their employment opportunities in any given community are at most only moderately affected by the relative importance of teenage intensive activities. The implications are that there is little reason for believing that the growth in job opportunities for teenagers will be crucially limited by growth trends for teenage intensive activities. Rather, since teenagers hold only a modest proportion of the jobs in such activities, they are able to secure a significantly higher proportion in those communities where these activities are under-represented.