The Covid pandemic, after all, hit this group particularly laborious. Final summer season, the unemployment fee for 16-to-24 yr olds was 18.5%, about twice as excessive because the yr earlier than.

Roughly 47% of younger individuals have been employed in July 2020, down from 56% a yr earlier, in accordance with knowledge from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (July is usually when youth employment peaks.)

On the identical time, internship alternatives — paid or unpaid — dried up practically completely.

“The previous yr introduced distinctive challenges for faculty college students and up to date graduates making an attempt to realize useful internship expertise, with many employers making the tough choice to pause hiring and even minimize internships,” mentioned Amanda Stansell, an financial knowledge scientist at job website Glassdoor.

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“Luckily, the labor market is seeing indicators of restoration, presenting alternatives for employees early of their careers to not solely discover internships at high corporations but additionally earn a hefty paycheck,” she added.

For school college students on the lookout for paid internships, extra corporations are actively recruiting, in accordance with a brand new report by Glassdoor.

Tech corporations, specifically, are utilizing internships as a pipeline for hiring and meaning providing extremely aggressive salaries, Stansell mentioned. “It is a good way for corporations to draw expertise and construct their expertise pipeline.”

Interns are making essentially the most general at chipmaker Nvidia, adopted by Automobilnews and LinkedIn, the place the median month-to-month pay is greater than $8,000, in accordance with Glassdoor. If these salaries have been being paid full-time, interns can be bringing residence round $100,000 a yr, nicely above the U.S. median wage.

Glassdoor’s report on the highest-paying internships for 2021 is predicated on wage opinions reported by interns between March 1, 2020 and Feb. 28, 2021.

“One of many silver linings is that plenty of these internships are nonetheless totally distant which opens up the enjoying area to college students throughout the nation,” Stansell mentioned.

Whereas scoring one among these alternatives is extremely aggressive, there are numerous extra internships accessible at different corporations, as nicely, and an rising variety of summer season jobs on the whole.

“We anticipate an uptick in summer season job alternatives for teenagers,” together with once-reliable gigs in retail shops and eating places, mentioned Vicki Salemi, a profession professional at Monster.com. 

Even when summer season positions do not seem instantly accessible but, extra job openings might be posted as companies reopen and employers reevaluate their wants, she mentioned.

“It is vital to maintain your eyes and ears open, if you have not landed one but, it doesn’t suggest you aren’t going to.”

Typically, nevertheless, youngsters are much less prone to be seeking to work, in accordance with a examine by the Hamilton Mission and Brookings Establishment.

That is partly as a result of there are extra summer season tutorial packages accessible and extra teenagers finishing neighborhood service as a part of their commencement necessities or to bolster their faculty functions, along with extra college students taking unpaid internships, which the BLS would not depend, in accordance with a separate evaluation by the Pew Analysis Heart.

The share of teenagers taking part within the labor pressure peaked 40 years in the past and has declined ever since.

In 1979, practically 60% of American youngsters have been employed, an all-time excessive. Right now, simply over one-third, or 35%, of teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 are a part of the workforce.

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