School has started up again, but current high schoolers likely had a very different summer than their parents did as teens. Only about a third of teenagers work summer jobs now, compared with more than half when their parents were young. 

Summer jobs aren’t just a nice source of income for teenagers – they are an important developmental tool that helps transform children into adults. Their decline is a real problem, and it could get worse.

According to Pew Research Center, teen employment bottomed out during the Great Recession, with fewer than 30% having jobs. Despite a slight uptick this past year, the rate has climbed to only 35.5%, far from the 1978 peak of 58%. The figures haven’t changed much since I was in high school in the late 2010s. 

Some of the blame lies with shifting incentives among wealthier teenagers, whose families are more likely to push them to spend their summers maximizing college odds through unpaid internships or other........

© USA TODAY