I worry less about screens than about the challenges today’s teens never face

A summer job was once a rite of passage for teens hired to staff local restaurants, stores and pools. But today the percentage of 16-19-year-olds now working summer jobs is at or near the lowest levels since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking this data just after World War II.

Today, about one in three 16-19-year-olds have a summer job. As there are about 17 million high-school-aged students in the U.S., this means that more than 11 million currently don’t have a summer job.