Washington Post: How Gen Z Teens Accidentally Blew Up the Myth of the Lazy Millennial

Today, when looking at the teen employment rate, there is a strong millennial collapse. When the first millennials turned 16 in 1997, teen employment was above 43%. When the last of their generation hit 16 in 2014, it had plunged to around 26%.

Jason Cabrera, 20, knows the teen workforce inside and out, as he has been a general manager at Layne’s Chicken Fingers since he was 19, hiring and managing a largely teen workforce. Therefore, Cabrera is experiencing the descent in millennial employment first-hand.

Cabrera used to see dozens of applications each week and now feels lucky if he sees a single application. These worker shortages make businesses like Layne’s far more willing to accommodate the hassles of hiring modern teens, who spend nine months of the year juggling school, sports and outside activities.

But “once summer hits,” Cabrera said, “most of these kids just want to work, and that’s all they want to do.”