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Bluffton, Ind.

By Sarah Pulliam
Colt Sain, 16, is frustrated that he cannot find a job after filling out more than seven applications.
“The only place that called me back was East of Chicago, and they didn’t hire me,” he said.
Sain, a Southern Wells High School student, said he began looking for a job last fall and found it difficult to find employment because he can only work limited hours. Sain plays sports at school and doesn’t own a car.
Wells County teens such as Sain may have difficulty finding jobs this summer.

Northeastern study
The 2005 national teen employment rate is the projected to be the lowest since 1948, according to a May report released by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.
The study stated that last year’s teen employment rate had dropped to 36.3 percent.
Andrew Sum, director Center for Labor Market Studies and contributor to the study, said Indiana had a 15 point decline in teen employment in the last four summers.
Forty-seven percent of Indiana’s teenagers are employed compared to the 42 percent national teenage employment, according to Sum.
Sum said there are three groups of people competing with teens for employment: immigrants, older women and college graduates.
“The younger you are, the less likely you are to be employed,” Sum said.
Because employers hire teenagers they know, teenagers often find jobs through parents and friends.
“Teenagers often sometimes need someone to vouch for them,” he said. “If kids don’t have good brokering networks, it’s harder for them to find a job.”
According to the 2000 Census, there are 2,136 Wells County residents between the ages of 15 to 19.

Wells County employment
Well’s County’s WorkOne Manager Jan Trubey said it’s harder for youth to find summer employment because of child labor laws.
“Many adults are employed in some of the jobs that youth historically would fill during the summer,” Trubey said. “They’re also competing with college students.”
Trubey said teenagers should apply to many retail, fast food and convenient stores such as Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, Family Dollar, McDonald’s and Pak-A-Sak.
“Most of the retail and services will take applications because they experience turnovers and they want a pool of applicants that they can call when they have an opening,” she said. “I think if you’re willing to work the hours that the employer needs and be willing to sweep floors or run a cash register, there are opportunities out there.”
WorkOne had a summer youth program five years ago, but Trubey said it lost federal and state funding.
Teenagers can use WorkOne’s free Internet-based system to match their qualifications with a job; however, Trubey said because many teenagers don’t have past experience, there are fewer job openings.
“Most of those jobs are going to be for people 18 and over,” she said.
Trubey said she advises teenagers to offer employers flexibility, proper attire when applying and then follow-up after applying with phone calls.
“Youth need to be aware that the job market is competitive and the better impression they can make, the more likely they can get a job,” Trubey said.
Wells County Chamber of Commerce CEO Garry Jones said employment in the county has changed in the last five or ten years.
“One of the difficult things right now is we have quite a few senior citizens in the work force,” he said.
Jones said the service sector, lawn care and Ouabache State Park are promising employment opportunities for teenagers.
“I think there’s a little difficulty for teenagers to find jobs,” Jones said. “I don’t think it’s any more difficult here than it is in any other community.”
David Knowles, manager of Wal-Mart, said about 20 teenagers are working for him this summer as stock employees or cashiers and he is still taking applications.
“ I’ve got some kids who are just awesome and then I have some kids who aren’t dependable,” he said. “I would say for the most part, 90 percent of the teenagers I have are very good.”
Knowles said his biggest frustration is employees who call-in sick on the weekends or holidays.
“Fridays and Saturdays we get a lot of call-ins that would never call-in on Mondays,” Knowles said. “That’s our biggest struggle because Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday are our days where we’re busiest.”
Knowles said Wal-Mart turns people down because they want more money or only want to work certain hours.
“The biggest thing that I would advise teenagers is find a job that they would enjoy,” he said. “You’re only going to be young once, enjoy it while you can.”

Wells County schools
Superintendent of Southern Wells Neil Potter said the school provides Guideman, a monthly publication that lists employment opportunities and they list announcements over the PA or post them on the bulletin board.
“We also sometimes help our juniors and seniors with job seeking skills such as interviewing and the application process,” Potter said.
Potter said Southern Wells students sometimes say it’s difficult to find a job, but he hasn’t heard a lot of complaints.
“There are some who get the factory work, but most of them are in the restaurant sector or family farm business,” he said.
Southern Wells provided 18 work permits for students ages 14-17 in the month of May.
Superintendent of Northern Wells Gina Berridge said the school places employment opportunities on the video screen in classrooms.
She said Norwell issues an average of five work permits a week, and many students work at ice cream shops, grocery stores, construction and on farms. Norwell High School students take a career class their freshman year.
“We don’t have a career counselor, but all three of the counselors at the school would help students,” she said.
Jean Anderson, treasurer at Bluffton High School, said that the school announces any employment opportunities over the intercom.
She said the students haven’t complained about finding a summer job, and she gave out 10 permits in the last two weeks.
“We seem to give a lot of work permits so I don’t hear any problems,” Anderson said.

Students speak
Derek Meyer, 18, said he works 15 to 20 hours a week at Scott’s grocery store, a job he found last October.
“I applied, like everywhere,” Meyer said. “It took me a long time. It’s hard to find a job when you have long hair. Then I finally figured out my aunt works there.”
Meyer, a Bluffton High School student, said he is saving money to replace a damaged refrigerator, repair a damaged car, buy a new guitar and travel to Germany, to which his three friends laughed and said, “You have high hopes, man.”
Sarah Kunkel, 19, said she filled out eight applications before finding a job at Wal-Mart in April.
“I was working in fast food at the time and I didn’t want to go back so I thought it would be fun to be a cashier,” she said.
Kunkel is a recent Norwell High School graduate and works 21 hours a week to pay for college tuition at Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne in the fall. She said Wal-Mart is a good environment to work in.
“They’re really good when I need days off,” Kunkel said. “They work around your schedule well.”
Her advice to other teenagers was to fill out many applications.
She said, “You can’t be picky.”

(Graph)

WHERE INDIANA TEENS WORK
(Non-Agriculture)

Restaurants 55.4 %

Retail Wholesale 21.15 %

Amusement/Recreation 6.12 %

Grocery Stores 2.56 %

Services 2.68 %

Nursing Homes 2.15 %

Municipalities 2.03 %

Source: Indiana Department of Labor, Bureau of Child Labor: Work Permits Issued by Indiana Schools FY 2002-2003