Youth Employment and American 'Work Ethics'

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Thu May 14 08:28:42 PDT 1998


Though many teenagers are forced by economic hardships to work for pay, it seems that in the US even those teenagers who can easily afford not to work tend to work for pay, doing shit work for lousy wages for long hours, instead of reading, becoming politically active, having fun, cultivating an aptitude for the enjoyment of time spent without purpose, or doing anything that is more worthwhile than creating surplus value for the low-wage service industry. The following excerpt from the May 13, 1998 BLS daily report suggests the extent of the pernicious effects of the ideology of 'Work Ethics' upon youths in the US.

Yoshie

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From: Richardson_D <Richardson_D at bls.gov> (by way of Michael Eisenscher <meisenscher at igc.apc.org>) To: Multiple recipients of list <can-labor at pencil.math.missouri.edu> Subject: BLS Daily Report

BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1998:

[Excerpt]

The virtue of student jobs is examined in The New York Times (page A16). According to The Times, 4 million students around the United States work one or more jobs while going to high school, a practice that appears to be particularly American. The Third International Math and Science Study observed earlier this year that no other country had so many high school students working so many hours a day. Among American seniors surveyed, 61 percent reported working, for an average of 3.1 hours daily, as against only 28 percent of seniors abroad, who worked a daily average of just 1.2 hours. Youth employment, all but unheard of in the 1950's, when only some 5 percent of students worked after school, is booming in the 1990's. Roughly 1 in 4 American high school students has a job at any given time, and the United States Department of Labor estimates that 80 percent of them will have held at least one job before graduation. The trend is driven by a plentiful supply of jobs in a service economy, dependent on low-skill work, perfectly suited for many young people, and by demand for employment from media-savvy teenagers hungry for designer clothes and cellular phones, or saving for the rising costs of college. But it has raised concern among educators, safety experts, and legislators, who cite not only health but safety risks, but also on the potential toll on the working student's education.



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