Teen Jobs Tick Up by Small Numbers in February 2025

February 2025′s jobs data showed little change for U.S. teenagers.

Overall, the seasonally-adjusted number of employed teens from Age 16 through 19 ticked up from January 2025, with 5,792,000 counted as having jobs. That’s up from the August 2024 low of 5,390,000, but is still down from the May 2024 peak of 5,861,000.

Virtually all of that gain is found among older teens, Age 18 and 19. This portion of the teen population contributed a seasonally-adjusted 3,801,000 workers to the ranks of the employed in February 2025. This figure is the highest in years for this portion of the employed teen demographic.

The story changes however when we look at the trend for younger teens, Age 16 and 17. Representing the most marginal members of the entire U.S. labor force, younger teens saw their employment numbers peak at 2,357,000 in December 2022. Since then jobs held by this demographic have slid, primarily during 2024. February 2025 recording a seasonally-adjusted figure of 1,994,000, which was up some 5,000 from January 2025′s level.

These numbers are captured in the following chart, which tracks U.S. teen employment from January 2021 through February 2025.

As a percentage of the teen population, the share of employed teens remained below their recent peaks in February 2025. For all working teens Age 16-19, February 2025′s 32.4% employment-to-population ratio remains below the peak of 34.0% recorded in August 2022. For older teens, the peak of 45.9% in December 2024 is much more recent, with February 2025′s level coming in at 45.6%.

Once again however, the story is different for younger teens. The share of working teens Age 16-17 peaked at 25.6% in April 2022. In February 2025, that figure is 20.9%. The next chart tracks the U.S. teen employment to population ratio from January 2021 through February 2025.

The months ahead may be rough going for teens with jobs and teens seeking jobs, especially younger teens if their nearly two-year long downward trend continues. We thought we’d end this month’s analysis of the teen job market with WYTV’s video discussing how to prepare your teenager for their first job:

But that doesn’t answer the question of who hires teens. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ web site is a surprising poor resource for that kind of information, but we did find another resource that may be more useful. Hireteen has a curated list of companies that hire teens for specific job openings and also offers a teen job search.

Teens are, by definition, the most marginal members of the U.S. work force, having almost by definition the least amount of education, skills, training, and work experience of all age-based demographic groups. We pay attention to the job situation for U.S. teens because it can be a harbinger of things to come for the entire U.S. job market.

References

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Labor Force Statistics (Current Population Survey – CPS). [Online Database]. Accessed: 7 March 2025.

Image credit: Wanted ad on OpenClipArt. Public domain image.