Emily Walton's List: Sr. Internship

• The proportion of 16- to 19-year-olds landing summer jobs this year is expected to slip below last summer's record-low of 28.5%, says Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University; that compares with 45% in 2000.
• The Economic Policy Institute says one million teens have simply left the labor force--they're neither working nor looking for work--since the recession began, an unprecedented number.
• Therein lies a huge risk for today's youth. Holding down a job, or volunteer work that replicates the demands of employment, can be an important growing-up experience, lending self-confidence, responsibility and basic job skills, teen-development experts say.
• But several damaging myths about teen summer jobs have taken root in the sour soil of recession.
• 
  • It's not worth trying. In a talk to 33 California teens last November, Renee Ward, founder of Teens4Hire.org, a job site for adolescents, says most had an attitude that "there are no jobs and nobody's hiring." But none of the teens in the group had even tried, she says. "They're just hearing it in the media and among their friends."
  
  Kids get jobs in a recession the same way jobless adults do--by trying, trying, and then trying again. Early in 2009, Spencer Dickerson-Carey, then 16, started applying for summer jobs, contacting more than 100 employers; he got two callbacks, both rejections. Finally, last July, the Long Beach, Calif., teen landed a part-time position selling skin-care products at a mall kiosk, where he made enough money to buy an old car.
• Among the best places to look, Ms. Ward says, are government-run youth programs; resorts and vacation spots; camps and amusement parks; child- and elder-care providers; moving, packing and lawn-care companies; movie theaters, restaurants, and clothing or accessory stores. "Don't buy into the idea that nobody is going to hire a teenager, because some will," she says. "Show your enthusiasm, your ambition and your drive."
• 
  • Summer jobs won't help you get into college. Too many teens and their parents assume a carefully assembled montage of bought-and-paid-for camps or overseas service trips will be their admission ticket to a competitive college. In fact, Seth Allen, immediate past president of The Common Application, a group of 400 colleges and universities that use a standardized undergraduate application form, regards this as a widespread misconception, "that getting a paid job isn't nearly as valuable an experience as going to a physics boot camp or building homes for the less fortunate on a Caribbean island."
  
  At many colleges, admissions officers' regard for such elaborate camps or group service trips, vs. earning a regular paycheck, "has flipped a bit. Students who work may stand out more" in a big applicant pool, says Mr. Allen, who is also dean of admission and financial aid at Grinnell College in Iowa. Paid jobs can provide the training and context teens need "to connect the education they will have in college to the real world," he says. If a teen can't find a paying job, serving "as the low person on the totem pole" as a volunteer with assigned duties and a regular work schedule at a nonprofit organization can deliver comparable experience.
  
  Finding a volunteer job as a teenager may take some work, but many organizations accept volunteers as young as 16, says Erin Barnhart of Idealist.org, a nonprofit that posts volunteer and internship opportunities on-line. Among them: some chapters of Habitat for Humanity, the American Cancer Society and the American Red Cross. Some teens are finding volunteer work helping nonprofits with social networking or Web marketing efforts, says a spokesman for VolunteerMatch.org, another Web site that posts volunteer opportunities.
• • Flipping burgers is beneath me. Many adolescents dismiss fast-food jobs as un-cool. But teens can learn a lot in a summer behind the fast-food counter. Yum! Brands' 5,600 U.S. Taco Bell restaurants, for example, train teens as young as 16 in customer service, production skills and teamwork. Shawn Boyer, chief executive of SnagAJob.com, a Web site posting hourly jobs, says, "Having that kind of job on your resume is not a knock," because such jobs entail real work, not just serving as a go-fer. He adds, "You can get firsthand experience interacting with customers," and opportunities to get promoted as well.
  
  On a job last summer at a McDonald's restaurant in Manhattan, Jennifer Martinez, 18, of New York City, discovered she likes customer service, she says, adding, "you're not going to get bored" meeting the public. She has advanced to a training position, in addition to serving as a cashier, and continues to work part-time while attending college. "I don't understand why people don't want to work in fast-food places," she says. She is learning the same customer-service, teamwork and time-management skills as required by any retail job, she adds.
• 
  • The paper route is out. It is true that kids aren't peddling newspapers door-to-door any more. But selling needed services to neighbors still works. Although they aren't on an employer's payroll, many kids still learn accountability, initiative and responsibility by selling their window-washing, trash-picking, housecleaning, lawn-mowing, baby sitting or other services.
  
  At age 11, Jeremy Furchtgott, Chevy Chase, Md., started a snow-shoveling business with help from his three younger brothers, earning from $15 to $100 per driveway on school snow days. That expanded to doing yard work for neighbors in the summer. By age 16, he started another business buying used bikes, fixing them up and selling them. Even while offering customers bargain prices, he still earned a hefty profit, splitting the proceeds with charity, says Mr. Furchtgott, now 18.
• 
  • All teen work is unskilled labor. Many teens think of career skills as something they will get in college or thereafter. But plenty of teens make money applying high-tech know-how. William McCraney, 18, has a business converting home videos to DVDs on his laptop. The Midland, Texas, teenager spends up to 20 hours a week working for clients during the summers. His profit has enabled him to buy a television and a new computer, and to pay half the cost of his car, a 2005 Yukon. (His parents paid the other half.) The biggest challenge, he says, is holding down sales volume during the school year. "I have to tell a lot of people no," he says. 

   

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•  As part of its projections of the federal budget and the economy, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects the size of the labor force over a 10-year period. Such projections depend, in part, on the employment picture for youth. For male youth, the trend in the employment rate is downward, but for females, it is upward.
  
•    Most people get their first job when they are a teenager. Although such jobs are likely to be low paying and to require little expertise, they provide important opportunities for young people to pick up practical job skills--coming to work on time, taking responsibility for assigned tasks, and so forth. Because early work experience is an important part of the preparation for or the launch of a productive work life, it can affect not only young people's future but also the larger economy.
  
• 
       Over the past few decades, trends in the percentage of youth who are employed have been quite different depending on whether they are male or female and on how old they are (see Figure 1). For instance, between the peak labor market years of 1979 and 2000, the portion of 16- to 19-year-old males with jobs fell from 49 percent to 44 percent, but the portion of females that age with jobs was unchanged, at 44 percent. For 20- to 24-year-old men, the employment rate fell from 79 percent to 77 percent, but for women that age, it rose from 62 percent to 69 percent.
•  What is behind the trends in youth employment? Increasing school enrollment, in particular, puts downward pressure on youth employment overall, because young people who are in school are much less likely to have jobs than are those who are not in school (37 percent versus 67 percent among teenage males in 2000, for example). School enrollment rates for both male and female youth increased over the 1979-2000 period.
•   Indications are that the drop resulted from both a reduction in male teens' availability for work and a lessening of the job opportunities for them. First, as the percentage of male teens with jobs went down over the period, the percentage actively looking for work did not go up. Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage adjusted for inflation fell over much of the period and was significantly lower in 2000 than it was in 1979--and thus posed less of a potential barrier to the creation of low-wage jobs. That no more teens were actively looking for work despite the easing of that potential barrier suggests that fewer teens were available for work or interested in the available jobs. Second, although job opportunities for male teens were hurt by shrinking employment at such establishments as gasoline stations and grocery stores, they were helped by growing employment at other establishments employing youth. Nevertheless, the hourly wages paid to male teens declined during the 1980s, indicating that employers were less interested in hiring them, probably because employers increasingly needed skilled workers more than unskilled ones. Furthermore, an influx of immigrants, predominantly males, who were unskilled but eager to work may have provided employers with an alternative to hiring male teens.
•     Among female teens, the unchanged employment rate masks two offsetting trends. On the one hand, the employment rate both for those out of school and for those in school increased slightly over the period. On the other hand, the increase in their school enrollment rate acted to bring their overall employment rate down.
  
• 
       The trends among young men and women were similar to those among teens. For example, among young men ages 20 to 24, the employment rates for those who were out of school also fell (see Figure 3*). Among young women that age, the increase in the employment rates both for those still in school and for those out of school dominated the employment-reducing effect of a large rise in their school enrollment rate.
• 
       In 2000, 4 million youth ages 16 to 24 (60 percent of them female) were neither in school nor working. About 1.7 million youth in that status had not finished high school, and most were not even looking for work. Another half million, mostly male, were in prisons and juvenile and other institutions.
  
•  The recent downturn in the labor market has reinforced the trends that occurred over the 1979-2000 period. Between 2000 and 2003, the employment rate of teens fell from 44 percent to 36 percent. Among young adults, the employment rate fell from 72 percent to 68 percent. The number of youth both out of school and not working rose from 4 million to 4.8 million.
• From a policy perspective, the trends in youth employment and school enrollment provide a decidedly mixed picture. The rising school enrollment rates for both males and females and the increasing employment rates for females are positive. However, the large secular decline in the employment rate for out-of-school teenage males is not, and the status of many youth who are neither in school nor working raises questions about what they are doing and what their prospects are for the future.
•    Youth who are enrolled in school are much less likely to have a job or to be looking for a job than are youth who are not in school.
• if in-school youth do have a job, it is rarely a full-time job--in 2003, only 14 percent of teenage males who were employed and in school worked full time, compared with 62 percent of those who were employed and out of school.
•  School enrollment rates for young people have increased substantially over the past 25 years. Between 1979 and 2003, they increased more for teenage females (14 percentage points) than for teenage males (9 percentage points)
• Predictably, school enrollment rates are lower for young adults than for teenagers, because many young adults have completed their education. However, over the 1979-2003 period, enrollment rates for young adults increased substantially--by over one-quarter for young adult males and by three-quarters for young adult females.
•    Had employment rates among in-school and out-of-school teenage males remained the same as those in 1979, the increases in their school enrollment rate between 1979 and 2003 would have reduced their overall employment rate by 3.4 percentage points
• For other groups of youth, the effect of increased school enrollment in reducing or limiting employment rates was similar--2.8 percentage points for teenage females, 2.5 for young adult males, and 2.1 for young adult females.
• The most likely reason for the growth in school enrollment rates is the attraction of better job opportunities available to those who complete more education.
• One indication of those opportunities is the substantially higher earnings of college graduates compared with those of high school graduates of the same age. For example, in 2002, male college graduates (without an advanced degree) earned 94 percent more than high school graduates ($64,000 versus $33,000)
• workers with more education typically have jobs with better fringe benefits and are less likely to be unemployed.
• Among recent cohorts of young males, no more are finishing high school, no more are getting some postsecondary education, and no more are obtaining a bachelor's degree. Female youth, however, are completing more education. More are finishing high school, more are getting some postsecondary education, and more are obtaining a bachelor's degree.
•   A possible reason for higher school enrollment rates among males without a parallel increase in their educational attainment is that students are generally taking longer to finish their education.
• At the college level, students appear to be stretching out their time as undergraduates. For example, among bachelor's degree recipients in 1992, 59 percent had completed their degree within five years of starting, but by 2000, that figure had slid to 55 percent.
• 
       Fewer than a quarter of teens are not in school.⁶ Although some of those teens may later continue their education, most are probably beginning a career. Those early experiences in the labor market can have lasting consequences for their earnings.
  
•  Trends in the Work Behavior of Students
  
       More than three-quarters of teenagers are students, and, in 2000, almost 40 percent of teenage students worked (averaging 20 hours a week), and more than 60 percent of young adult students worked (averaging 28 hours a week). Research has found no detrimental effects on educational achievement when high school students make a light to moderate commitment to working. Instead, when people reach their mid-20s, their earnings and fringe benefits are positively associated with the hours they worked as seniors in high school.
• Changes in the Labor Markets Where Youth Work
  
       Several sources of evidence on the job opportunities for youth point both to a decline in teenage and young adult males' availability for work and to a decline in the relative job opportunities for males.
•   As the percentage of male youth with jobs declined over the 1979-2000 period, the percentage actively looking for work did not go up. Meanwhile, the inflation-adjusted minimum wage dropped substantially, which could have led to the creation of more low-wage jobs. That no more male youth were actively looking for a job despite the easing of a potential barrier suggests that fewer were available for work or interested in the available jobs.
  
• 
       The shifts in employment among sectors of the economy are consistent with improving job opportunities for female youth along with stagnant or declining opportunities for their male counterparts. Also, the entry of many unskilled immigrants into the labor force, two-thirds of whom were male, probably reinforced the decline of job opportunities for male as compared to female youth. Overall, the declining hourly wages of youth suggest that employers were less interested in hiring them, at least during the 1980s, probably both because employers increasingly needed more skilled workers and because immigrants provided an alternative source of unskilled workers.
• Growth in the Competition for Youth in the Labor Market: Unskilled Immigrants
  
       Immigrant labor has been the largest source of growth in the labor force, accounting for about half of that growth between 1990 and 2003.¹⁰ Increasingly, immigrants have little formal education, so the native workers whose earnings and employment are most likely to have been affected are unskilled and young workers, particularly those who have not finished high school
• Hence, the influx of immigrants may have contributed to the fall in the employment of male youth, particularly the large decline for out-of-school male teens.
  
• The increase in the foreign-born population may have increased the competition for the jobs that out-of-school native-born males seek more than it has for the jobs that native-born females seek. Foreign-born men are more likely to be in the labor force than are native-born men (89 percent versus 85 percent for those ages 20 to 64). However, foreign-born women are significantly less likely to be in the labor force than are native-born women (74 percent versus 63 percent).
• Between 2000 and 2003, the employment rate for teenagers fell dramatically, from 44 percent to 36 percent, its lowest level in the post-World War II period.

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• About one in four teens will have a job this summer, down from more than half of teens just a decade ago, according to an April report from Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies.
• Sum laid out the competition teens faced in the last decade for low-level jobs: Older workers (55-plus), young college graduates (25 and under), immigrants and, as the construction and manufacturing sectors weakened, blue-collar workers.
• "Teen workers occupy the 'last hired, first fired' rung on the job ladder, and their employment is hit much harder during downturns than that of older workers," wrote Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, in a 2009 analysis.
• "We're at risk of having a lost generation of teens who were excluded from that valuable first job experience," said Michael Saltsman, a research fellow at the Employment Policies Institute (EPI).
• It's a risk Washington is working to alleviate: A bill that included $1 billion over 10 years for youth job creation and training was passed by the House last month and is awaiting a Senate vote. But if it does pass, that $1 billion won't buy a generation-wide rescue. Instead, the legislation aims to create 350,000 jobs, helping just a fraction of the estimated 2.4 million job-seeking teens.
• Teen employment has withered in the past decade, creating a teen jobs crisis that will persist well after the recession's end. Factor in the unsustainable national debt, and government subsidies are clearly not the elixir here.
• Instead, it's a good time to try a budget-neutral idea: Set a separate, lower minimum wage for those ages 16-19. James Sherk, a labor policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, estimated that a shift back to $5.15 an hour for teens could create nearly 500,000 such jobs — at zero cost to taxpayers.

  • This is interesting because there is a Subminimum wage amendment in the Fair Labor Standards Act that allows teens still enrolled in school to be paid $4.25 for 90 days, which is 3 months, and that would take care of the summer. However, there are no articles about this law and it is not well-known. This article was written in 2010, but this amendment was revised in 2008.
• the federal minimum wage has seen a swift and steep increase in the past few years. Since 2007, it has jumped 41%, growing to the current $7.25 an hour from $5.15. In that same time, the May teen unemployment rate has skyrocketed to 26% from 16%. A 10% increase in the minimum wage reduces teen employment by about 2%, Sherk figures.
• And while the recession clearly played a large role, the rapid minimum-wage hikes exacerbated the job losses.
• When the minimum wage rose, creation of part-time entry level jobs plummeted — disproportionately impacting teens.
• Minority teens are especially hard hit. For every 10% increase in the minimum wage, there is a 7% decrease in employment for black and Hispanic teens, according to a 2007 study for EPI by David Neumark, a professor at the University of California-Irvine. Currently, black and Hispanic teen unemployment rates (38% and 29%, respectively) are significantly higher than that of white teens (25%). Why such a high disparity exists isn't clear, although higher high school dropout rates and less access to transportation and professional networks likely contribute.
• when the choice is either jobs or higher wages, I suspect jobs wins hands-down
• teens' first jobs usually aren't about earning money for food or housing. Instead, they're about paying for college or other necessities,
• In fact, for teens, the most valuable long-term benefit of that entry-level job might not be the paycheck but the skills learned along the way.

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• The U.S. Bureau of Labor   Statistics, the government agency that gathers information about   employment, calculates youth summer employment at the end of the   season, which runs from April to July.
• The   April employment participation rate, those 16-to-24 year olds   working or looking for work, was 59.3 percent, down from 64.2   percent in 2000, according to bureau economist Stephanie Boraas.
• The economic slowdown is one reason for this decline. Many lower-paying   jobs in the service industries such as food service and retail   are going to adult employees including out-of work professionals,   seniors returning to work and recent college graduates.
• Teen employment can also be impacted by employers' perceptions   that teens are not the most reliable workforce.

• Brian Cote, a general manager at Hilltop Fun Center in Somersworth,   N.H., told Foster's Sunday Citizen he's had trouble keeping employees.

   

  "It's   a good pool but a lack of work ethic. It's hard to keep teenagers   staying focused," he said.

• Renee Ward, founder of Teens4Hire.org, a national teen employment   Web site, concurs but thinks the perceptions are not always fair   or accurate.

   

  "That's the perception, that teens are not mature enough,   not prepared for the workplace, they have poor expectations. They   want a paycheck but don't want to work for it. But that's not   fair," Ward said. "They've got to start somewhere. I   don't think the mindset exists to truly value the young worker."
• According to a March 2004 Teens4Hire.org membership poll, 52   percent of the more than 3,000 responders said that working was   not a luxury. Thirty percent of those polled said that the money   was for helping family and 22 percent said wages were for college   expenses.
• And the majority of those teens who are working hold jobs in   restaurants and retail stores. A Junior Achievement survey found   that 26 percent of teens with jobs work in restaurants or fast   food, another 26 percent in retail or sales, 11 percent in an   office, 6.6 percent in lawn care, 6 percent in babysitting, 4.6   percent in lifeguarding or recreation and 1.7 percent in construction.
•    

  Research has shown that teens from all income brackets have increased   wages and job stability if they have early work experience.
• "They   do better. They earn more. They're employed more stably,"   said Sum. "And they make more money until they're in their   mid-20s. So there's a lot of advantages to having kids work when   they're young."
• o maximize their employment chances Teen4Hire.org recommends   a list of the top ten tips to land a job. The tips include knowing   your potential employer's expectations, getting good grades, being   aggressive in your job hunt and learning to fill out an employment   application.

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• “Your manners are always under examination, and by committees little suspected, awarding or denying you very high prizes when you least think of it”, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
• When a person gets into employment for the first time he gets confused with the corporate culture and finds it very difficult to learn the corporate etiquette which is otherwise also known as business etiquette. There will be vast cultural gaps from the background from where the individual has come and that of the organization he enters. He finds it very difficult to get along with new cultures, customs, norms and rules. There would certainly be a gap. It takes certain time to get adjusted and adapted to the corporate culture and learn the etiquette.
    
    Every one knows the meaning of etiquette. Etiquette is nothing but manners to be followed in a given cultural environment. Every culture has its own etiquette. But overall the etiquette is universal with certain characteristics and qualifications that run across all people like a common thread. Business etiquette is also an etiquette that has to be adopted in every business keeping ethics and integrity in view. It varies from culture to culture and from country to country and from industry to industry. All the differences are only superficial in nature with the commonalities of basic business etiquette being at the core level.
    
    Etiquettes are of different types. It is desirable to focus on a few basic etiquettes which collectively constitute the corporate etiquette. They are Hand shake, Interview etiquette, Mobile etiquette, Telephone etiquette, Office etiquette, Dress code, Giving business card, Dining etiquette, Handling people, International business etiquette, Email etiquette, etc.,

  • JUST USE TO WRITE PAPER.. NOT FOR QUOTES
• HANDSHAKE:
    
    When two men meet each other they shake their hands as a symbol and sign of meeting.
• There has to be firm handshake that represents the confidence level of the persons. If a person presses down the palm of the other person and shakes his hand it indicates that the person is dominant in nature. On the other hand, if the person allows his own palm pressed downwards and lets the other person’s palm upwards it indicates the submissive style of the person. In the third scenario if both the persons keep their palms perpendicular to the ground and if both persons plays neutral neither being in the dominant level nor in the submissive level then it is the right method of handshake and it indicates win-win or assertive handshake. A person’s nature can be easily judged by the way he shakes his hand with others. It becomes the core part of any corporate culture.
• INTERVIEW ETIQUETTE:
    
    When going for an interview, the door is to be knocked, and after seeking the permission the person should enter the interview room. The person should greet the interview panel member like ‘Good morning Sir/Sirs’ depending upon the time of interview and wait for the permission to be seated. If there is a woman Interviewing Officer(IO) it is etiquette to greet her first followed by male members as it is part of the Indian culture to respect women.
    
    After getting the permission to sit, the person should sit with straight posture at the back with his back touching the chair and without dragging the chair or dragging the feet. No attempts should be made either to lean forward or to lean too much backward or to sit in totally at an ease position. The person should sit straight and be alert by keeping both the legs together with both feet touching on the ground.
    
    When the question is posed, the person should fully wait till the completion of the sentence by the IO and then reply. No attempts should be made to interrupt or interfere with the conversation of IO. After listening carefully the person should analyze, process with in his mind and then should reply appropriately with clear cut thoughts.
• After the completion of the interview, thank them and exit the room smartly without any unnecessary noise.
• MOBILE ETIQUETTE:
    
    Now days, mobiles have become both a boon and bane. Whenever there is an engagement or any hectic or important activities are going on, the mobile should be kept in a silent mode. It is not proper to talk over the phone when important discussion or meeting is in progress. After the completion of the meeting the calls can be attended as unattended calls are reflected in the handset. These days, marketing calls do come frequently and it disturbs the mood and also the precious time. These are known as unsolicited calls. The best thing is to cut short such calls by saying, ‘I will get back to you’ or ‘Can I call you back?’
• TELEPHONE ETIQUETTE:
    
    It is more or less like mobile etiquette only. The caller has to identify himself first, and then should confirm whether he is looking for the concerned person and then should start conversation. Even if you are interrupted, exercise patience to the caller and respond. Radiate energy and if it is not possible, at least exercise warmth so that the caller feels comfortable and convenient to communicate. Do not keep the caller on hold without asking ‘Say like, may I put you on a hold for a moment?’ and then put the caller on hold till you connect the right person or to give the correct information. Personalize the conversation to make it polite and presentable. If the concerned person is not there and if the caller provides the information to pass on, then note down on a paper or a note pad, sign and make it accessible and reachable to the concerned person.
• OFFICE ETIQUETTE:
    
    When you visit to somebody’s office, do no roam around as though it is your own office. When you are a stranger to a place maintain and behave like a visitor or as a guest not like a host. Do not disturb the receptionist with too many queries. When you are asked to work in your cubicle stick to that only and do not encroach into others’ cubicles.
    
    You can call person by name at the corporate world but politely. There is no need to call ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ frequently. The body language must be positive and assertive it should neither be aggressive nor submissive. While addressing a woman if it is not clear whether she is married or unmarried, you can use Ms as that can convey politely for both married and unmarried woman.
    
    Personal space from person to person needs to be maintained properly. It is known as proxemics. You should not behave with unknown people by being too close by maintaining intimate distance as it creates discomfort for others.
  
• DRESS CODE:
    
    For men the shirt should be in light color with a tie. There should not be any cabbage socks. The socks need to be changed regularly. Avoid wearing white socks. The body can be applied with light perfume. It is essential to wear tie for formal meetings. A few companies have separate and specific dress code to its employees on specific days. There is a traditional formula for male attire. BBTTSS is the acronym for Boot and Belt which must be of the same color, Tie and Trouser should preferably match with each other and Shirt and Socks should match with each other.
• Ultimately the dress code should be pleasing, neat and clean and presentable.
• ress code for women is a very complicated one. It differs from region to region and from country to country based on their cultural background as well as their tastes and temperaments. They should not dress like a Christmas tree. There should not be any hanky panky costumes. Don’t decorate with excessive jewellery or ornaments. The dress should match as per the corporate culture and values of the organization. The clothes must be positive and presentable and not of tight fittings, no obscene clothes or revealing clothes etc.
• HANDLING PEOPLE:
    
    Every business person should learn basic etiquette to deal with people. Of course, there are number of written and unwritten rules and guidelines and when in doubt stick to the basic and follow.
    
    • Build good relations with peers and subordinates.
    • Never differentiate people based on designations and rank.
    • Memorize the names of the people. If not, then correlate the name of the person with that of your previous acquaintances with in your mind for effective retention. Make a good practice of collecting the names of the people with their phone numbers, date of birth, family details. This will help you to build strong relations with them.
    • Learn to appreciate people sincerely. If it is essential to criticize, do not attack the person rather attack his behavior as it takes the matter away from person-centric to problem-centric or behavior-centric.
    • Never surprise your boss. Always keep him informed about the work related activities and try to be in the good books of your boss.
  
• EMAIL ETIQUETTE:
    
    Paper correspondence is gradually losing its relevance. In every business there is growing significance attached to Email and it is necessary to dwell at length about email etiquette in this context.
    
    The subject matter should be simple, specific, short and identify yourself. It should not be like compound sentences. The receiver should be in a position to identify its source and the objective behind it. In the ‘To’ address column put the main addressee and if the same is to be informed to other addresses you can add those emails in the ‘CC’ column. It is usually considered unethical to use the BCC column. If the mail is not to be known to the other addressees and in extreme cases you can use ‘BCC’.
    
    Personalize the mail to create bonding with the reader. Dear Sir/Madam, followed by the name of the person with designation as it impresses the reader for the significance you have accorded to the designation and also for having made it personal.
    
    Follow proper alignment and the margin on the left side. Write the contents in simple, straight and short manner. The contents must be concise, crisp and clear. Put across all the points. At the end, you may conclude with ‘Regards’, or ‘Best regards’, or ‘With regards’, or ‘Best wishes’ followed by your signature. Before sending check for grammar, syntax, sentence format, punctuation. Read and reread the email before hitting the ‘send’ button as it becomes an evidence for future records.
    
    While replying to official mails do not check ‘Reply all’ button as the confidential information, if any, will be known to all. Never type the contents in capital letters as that indicates that you are shouting at others. And also avoid using lower case. As far as possible the business letter should not last more than a page as it is an official document. Do not visit pornographic sites as every company has an internal scanning system to check the same. And ultimately you will be in deep hot water. Try to use soft, polite and neutral words and avoid using unparliamentary language.
  

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• Approximately 131,000 Maryland teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were part of the state?s work force in 2006, according to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation. Of those, 115,000 found employment, while 16,000 did not, the department said.
• Youth between the ages of 14 and 18 accounted for 4.3 percent of Maryland?s work force, nearly one out of every 20 workers, according to a department report released in March and based on 2005 statistics. That age bracket wasn?t getting rich from the jobs, according to the report: their average monthly salary across all industries was $689.
• Not surprisingly, most of those teens work in the food service and accommodations industry ? where they comprise 17 percent of the industry?s total work force ? recreation and retail.
• "They do provide a really valuable service in retail and food service, those typically entry-level jobs," said Crystal Martin, deputy assistant secretary with the state Department of Labor?s Division of Workforce Development "We?re trying to move them into fields like health care, where there?s a lot of growth."

  • job creation ideas.

• CTE programs vary from school to school, according to Jeanne-Marie Holly, program manager for the CTE systems branch. Holly said some students participate in in-school projects, while others are placed with local businesses and groups where they one day hope to work.

  "It makes that whole high school experience much more relevant for students," she said.

  • CTE classes at school provide students with training and experience for jobs.

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• And huge numbers of young people, ages 16 to 30, are being beaten down in ways that could leave scars for a lifetime.
• The ones who are being hit the hardest and will have the most difficult time recovering are America’s young workers. Nearly 2.2 million young people, ages 16 through 29, have already lost their jobs in this recession. This follows an already steep decline in employment opportunities for young workers over the past several years.
• Good jobs were hard to find for most categories of workers during that period. One of the results has been that older men and women have been taking and holding onto jobs that in prior eras would have gone to young people.
• “What we’ve seen over the past eight years, for young people under 30, is the largest age reversal with regard to jobs that we’ve ever had in our history,” said Andrew Sum, the director of the Center for Labor Market Studies. “The younger you are, the more you got pushed out of this labor market.”
• Young men and women who remain unemployed for substantial periods of time find it very difficult to make up that ground. They lose the experience and training they would have gained by working. Even if they eventually find employment, they tend to lag behind their peers when it comes to wages, promotions and job security.

  • **importance of experience
• According to a report by researchers working with Mr. Sum: “While young college graduates have fared the best in maintaining some type of employment, a growing fraction of them are becoming mal-employed, holding jobs in occupations that do not require much schooling beyond high school, often displacing their less-educated peers.”

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• Business people can control how clients and coworkers perceive them with their manners and image.
• Image is one of the most important aspects in business, so etiquette must be given proper attention
• Business etiquette is a necessary part of every industry, from interviewing for a job to meeting with prospective clients at an expensive restaurant.
• Business etiquette serves as a commonality among even the most dissimilar of business affiliates. It is a uniform language of sorts that one can expect to receive and deliver in a business setting.
• It bridges the gap between business people of different cultures or companies.    The way a business person carries himself in a business setting can serve as a positive reinforcement of the company he represents, or a negative one.
• Business etiquette allows a client, coworker or supervisor to see the message you deliver more clearly and not be distracted by poor behavior, communication skills and habits. It makes your message much more appealing.
• Always be courteous and build others up. Encouragement is one of the most important parts of life and can be a great tool in business.    Offer praise to coworkers when they do something well. Tell them what they did well, why you appreciate it and thank them for being a positive example.    Maintain your convictions but deliver them tactfully. If you give a strong opinion whenever you can, it won't have the same effect as offering it only when necessary.
• Be objective in all situations.    Avoid raising your voice, passive aggression and harsh language,
• Always arrive about 10 to 15 minutes early, regardless of who you're meeting or where you're going.
• Etiquette during interviews involves dressing for the position you want, not necessarily the one for which you're interviewing. Bring several copies of your resume and cover letter in a briefcase, each in its own file folder. Offer one but have more on hand in case the employer requests more.
• During business meetings, listen before you speak. Take notes, collect your thoughts and make your comments or ask your questions when the time is right. Speak confidently but cordially.
• At a lunch or dinner meeting, avoid ordering messy food and order a similar dish to the rest of the attendees. If everyone orders a salad and you order a steak, it looks a little uneven and can be distracting.
• Keep your cell phone concealed and never put it on the table.
• Exercising proper business etiquette could make the difference between gaining a new client or losing prospective client.
• This is how you can stand out to future clients.    Business etiquette can set you apart from other job applicants interviewing for the same job. Your behavior could be what sets lands you the job, not your credentials.

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• Having a job as a teenager can be a valuable experience, teaching responsibility, and organizational and time management skills, along with providing a paycheck.
• The Current Population Survey (CPS) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produces data on school enrollment and employment for teens. These data show that teens are enrolled in school at increasingly higher rates since the mid 1980s (when the CPS began collecting monthly enrollment data for persons aged 16-24), while fewer teens are employed during the school year than in the past. Both teens who are in school and those who are not in school saw their employment rates decline; however, the decline for students has been greater than for nonstudents.
• The proportion of 16- to 19-year-olds enrolled in school during regular school months grew from 72.8 percent in 1985 to 82.5 percent in 2007. At the same time, the rate of employment, officially known as the employment-to-population ratio, fell to 33.2 percent during school months in 2007, down from 41.5 percent in 1985.

  • not all the causes are bad. this is decline comes from a positive thing. What's in called when 1 bad thing happens as a result of something good?...
•  Between 2000 and 2007, the proportion of 16- to 19-year-olds who were enrolled and not employed during regular school months grew by 11 percentage points, from 48 percent to 59 percent.
• A little less than one-quarter of teenagers (24 percent) were both enrolled and employed during the 2007 school months. The ratio was down from 30 percent in 2000, after having edged up during the 1990s.
•  Youths who were not enrolled and were employed made up 10 percent of the population aged 16-19 during the 2007 school months. This proportion is lower than it was in 1985 (16 percent).
• eens who were neither enrolled in school nor working at a job (sometimes referred to in the literature as "disconnected" youths⁴) were 8 percent of the 16- to 19-year-old population during school months in 2007, a rate that was down from about 10 percent in the early 1990s.
• The enrollment rate for teens aged 16-17 moved upward slightly, from 92 percent of the population in 1985 to 95 percent in 2007. The status of the majority of teens in this age group is "enrolled and not working." During school months in 2007, 73 percent of 16- to 17-year-olds were nonworking students; a proportion that was up from 63 percent in 2000
• The proportion of 16- to 17-year-olds who were both enrolled and employed was 21 percent in 2007, down by 10 percentage points since 2000.
• The 18- to 19-year-old age group includes youths who are in high school and those who are in college. After graduating from high school, a higher proportion of youths is moving onto college or other advanced education than had been in the past. (
• During the 2007 school months, 68 percent of young adults aged 18-19 were enrolled in school, while in 1985, a little more than half were enrolled.
• In 2007, 42 percent of 18- to 19-year-olds were nonworking students, up from 34 percent in 2000;
• Employed students were 26 percent of the 18- to 19-year-old population in 2007, down from 30 percent in 2000
•   Young adults who worked and did not attend school were 19 percent of the 18- to 19-year-old population during the 2007 school months, down from 24 percent in 2000
• The share of young adults aged 18-19 who were neither enrolled in school nor working at a job was 13 percent in 2007, about the same as in 2000 and down from 17 percent in 1985.
•   A larger proportion of 16- to 19-year-old women was enrolled during the 2007 school months than men (84 percent and 81 percent, respectively.)
• A slightly higher percentage of young men than young women (11 percent and 9 percent respectively) held a job, but were not students during school months in 2007.
• The adolescent birthrate for young women ages 15-19 was 59.9 births per 1,000 females in 1990, and it declined to 40.5 births per 1,000 in 2005.

  • less females are getting pregnant younger and are able to stay in school longer, so achieve a higher education than in years past.
•  A number of differences in employment and enrollment patterns may be observed among black, white, and Hispanic teens.⁶ Although the employment rates for all three groups have moved downward in recent years, white youths continue to be employed at greater rates than black or Hispanic youths.
• Various researchers have studied this issue, and a number of reasons for the difference have been suggested, including the effects of family characteristics, such as the employment behavior of other household members; neighborhood and geographic factors, such as the industrial composition of the area and the availability of transportation; and individual characteristics, such as criminal activity.

  • **causes for minority differences
• The enrollment rates for all three groups have been rising, with the rates for black and white youths remaining higher than for Hispanic youths. Hispanics do have a higher high school dropout rate than either blacks or whites have: in 2005, among persons 16 to 24 years old, the percentage of high school dropouts (the "status" dropout rate) was 6.0 percent for whites, 10.4 percent for blacks, and 22.4 percent for Hispanics.
• During 2007, 69 percent of black youths were enrolled and not employed during school months, as opposed to 59 percent of Hispanic youths and 56 percent of white youths. This gap between black teens, on the one hand, and Hispanic and white teens, on the other, has remained fairly consistent over time.
•  A greater share of white teens between the ages of 16 and 19 than either blacks or Hispanics was both enrolled and employed in 2007. During the 2007 school months, 29 percent of white youths were students and held jobs, compared with 13 percent of blacks and 17 percent of Hispanics. The proportions for blacks and whites trended downward after 2000.
  
• A larger proportion of Hispanic 16- to 19-year-olds than either blacks or whites was not enrolled and employed. At 14 percent during the 2007 school months, this proportion for Hispanics was down from 20 percent in 2000. The proportion of white teens who worked and were not enrolled was higher in 2007 (10 percent) than the proportion of black teens (7 percent).

  • less hispanic teens stayed in school than whites and blacks, and more held jobs than white and blacks
• Greater school pressures
  
       A number of factors indicate that pressure to achieve in school has increased for youths. Academic requirements for graduation have become more stringent, and many students are subject to high school exit examinations. Students are taking advanced academic courses at greater rates than ever before, and are taking more Advanced Placement® (AP) exams.
• In addition, because college enrollment has been trending upward, high school students may be applying themselves more toward their academic studies in order to increase their chances of being accepted to college. All of these factors can lessen the amount of time students have available for work and may serve to place a greater emphasis on the importance of school rather than on working.
• More courses and higher level courses. In the early 1980s, States began to increase the number of courses required to graduate from high school. Indeed, data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) show that the average number of Carnegie units (a standard measurement for the amount of time spent on a subject) earned by public high school graduates was 21.7 for 1982 graduates and 25.8 for graduates in 2004 (the most current  data available).
• High school graduates also are taking more advanced courses; NCES data show that the proportion of high school graduates taking advanced-level courses was higher in 2004 than in 1990. One-half of high school graduates completed advanced mathematics courses in 2004, while a little less than one-third did so in 1990. Advanced science courses were taken by 68.4 percent of graduates in 2004, compared with about one-half of graduates in 1990. About one-third of high school graduates took advanced English courses and advanced foreign language courses in 2004 (32.7 percent and 34.5 percent, respectively). In 1990, about one-fifth of graduates took courses in each.¹⁰ (See table 5, page 59.)
• Thus, in recent years, ever more high school seniors are graduating having earned credits in increasingly difficult curricula. In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education, as part of the report, "A Nation at Risk," recommended that at a minimum, college-bound students take four units of English, three of social studies, three of science, three of mathematics, one-half unit of computer science, and two units of a foreign language.¹¹ In 2005 (the most current year available), 36 percent of high school graduates earned this level of achievement, compared with 2 percent in 1982.
• In October  2006, the college enrollment rate for recent high school graduates was 65.8 percent; in October 2001, it was 61.6 percent. Because the number of recent high school graduates who go on to attend college is greater than in the past, it is likely that they are spending more time on schoolwork (and thereby leaving less time for working) in order to enhance their chances for acceptance. Also, because financial aid for college has become more available, it may be that working to pay for college during one's teen years has become less common as a method of financing one's education.
• During 1992-93, about 59 percent of full-time, full-year undergraduates received some form of financial aid, whether it was from a Federal, State, or institutional source or through an employer. By 2003-04, the figure had increased to 76 percent.
• Second, average tuition rates and fees for college (adjusted for inflation) have risen substantially, resulting in more families being eligible for aid. Third, more grant and loan programs are available.
• One such program is the HOPE scholarship, which provides financial assistance to students attending State universities; in some cases, recipients receive free tuition. Begun in Georgia in 1993, HOPE scholarships have spread in some form or other to 15 more States. In their 2006 study on teen labor force participation, Daniel Aaronson, Kyung-Hong Park, and Daniel Sullivan found that, between 2000 and 2004, labor force participation among 16- to 17-year-olds in HOPE States fell more than participation did for teens in non-HOPE States.
• There is some evidence that requirements and incentives for community service are becoming more prevalent at both the high school and college levels. If students either are choosing or are required to spend more time on volunteer work, then they will have less time available for paid work.
• The reason is that a downturn in the economy can cause workers to leave the labor force and return to or stay in school to enhance their skills.

  • students choose to stay in school longer, rather than enter the work force simply because there are not any jobs waiting for them.

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• Nearly one in three teenagers say you must "bend the rules to succeed," according to a recent Junior Achievement/Deloitte & Touche USA LLP poll conducted by Harris Interactive.
• But teenagers also think people who practice good business ethics are more successful than people who don't, jumping from 56 percent in 2003 to 62 percent in 2004.

• Thus, teens are getting mixed messages and educators must teach youngsters about ethics during formative years, says James Quigley, CEO of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP. 

   

   More than eight out of 10 teenagers turn to friends for help in making ethical decisions, followed by parents, teachers, the Internet, and clergy members, the report showed.

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• The Fair Labor Standards  Act (FLSA) provides for the employment of certain individuals at wage rates  below the minimum wage. These  individuals include student-learners (vocational education students), as well  as full-time students employed by retail or service establishments,  agriculture, or institutions of higher education
• Employment at less than the minimum wage is designed to prevent  the loss of employment opportunities for these individuals. Certificates issued  by the Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour  Division are required for this type of employment.
• The youth minimum  wage is authorized by the FLSA, which allows employers to pay employees  under 20 years of age a lower wage for 90 calendar days after they are first  employed. Any wage rate above $4.25 an hour may be paid to eligible workers  during this 90-day period.

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• As recently as 1990, nearly 70% of newspaper carriers in the U.S. were teens. But that number dropped to 18% in 2004, and more declines are likely, according to Robert Rubrecht, director of circulation and marketing at the Newspaper Association of America."It's an evolutionary process," he says.

  • technology has replaced many of the jobs teens once filled
• Experts in the field say employers who want to ensure a quality workforce down the line should sit up and take notice.

  • the high unemployment rate for teens needs to be taken more seriously because the teens are the future and the ones who will be making all of the executive decisions down the road, so they need to start somewhere.
• According to data gathered for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 37% of teens nationwide worked in the summer of 2006 -- nearly 11% fewer than were working in 1989, the peak of a nation-wide economic boom.  
• Are teens working less because they are too busy with their MySpace pages, disdainful of teen job opportunities or just plain lazy? Adults are quick with anecdotal evidence to support such theories, but according to Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, there is no data to back them up. "When you ask teens if they want to work, a large number of kids say they simply can't find a job," says Sum, who is also a professor of labor economics.

  • Teens are looking for jobs, but can't find them. Many adults try to pass this off by saying the teens are spending too much time on social networks rather than looking for jobs, but this is simply not true. There is no evidence supporting this theory.
• Like adults, teens were hurt by the mini-recession of 2001, but while the adult economy has regained its footing, teen employment has continued to fall, says Sum. "Employers are hiring immigrants instead of kids, especially in the last six years," he notes.
• Another group replacing teens are workers 55 and older seeking to supplement their incomes.
• White teens were almost twice as likely as black teens to work last summer, just as the poorest teens were least likely to work.
• He and other experts agree that teens gain critical skills from early work experiences; without widespread teen employment opportunity, the future workforce will be compromised, they say.
• "Working as a team, completing tasks and taking responsibility. Kids learn these skills through employment," says Ivan Charner, director of the Academy of Educational Development/National Institute for Work and Learning, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit concerned with workplace development. "Can you learn those skills by playing a sport or volunteering at church? Yes, but if you are a volunteer, you don't necessarily have to show up. A lot of kids don't or can't play sports. Employment provides an important opportunity for kids to learn from adults other than their teachers or parents." 

  • Having a paid job provides oppurtunites that volunteering and playing sports can't. Also, not all kids can play sports.
• Barbara Hewitt, senior associate director of Wharton's Career Services, says college graduates often leverage early work experience to win later employment.

  • A college degree looks great, but you have to have the experience to get anywhere with it.
• Young people think about becoming teachers because they attend school. They know about sports because they play them. Working is a great way to experience a profession.
• You can't land a job when you don't have experience, and you can't get experience unless you have had a job.
• "We often ask, 'What's wrong with this generation? They don't have any work ethic?' but a deeper analysis shows they haven't had the same employment opportunities their parents and older siblings once had," says Neil Sullivan, executive director of the Boston Private Industry Council
• In an October 2006 study, "Are They Really Ready to Work?" more than 400 U.S. executives and human resource professions reported that entry-level employees, including graduates of four-year colleges, lack critical skills.
• Two-year college and technical school graduates were rated "excellent" in only one category -- information technology application -- and even that by only a quarter of employers. Four-year college graduates fared better, rating as excellent in IT application, diversity and problem-solving, yet a quarter of employers still found these graduates deficient in written communications and leadership skills.
• Hiring and training from within the local teen workforce, says Sinnery, is a "strategic business solution," given the labor shortfall that will follow the baby boomer retirement.

  • Once the last of the baby boomers retire, employers are going to be the ones searching for workers and the ones who are teens now are going to be the ones hired. The teens need the experience now to be a sufficient worker when it really starts to matter and count.
• One important step corporations can take is to articulate what specific skills they need in their entry-level workforce -- and then communicate those needs to the relevant school systems, according to Smith.

  • solution- The students coming out of high school don't have the necessary skills required. To solve this problem corporations need to communicate to the school systems what skills the students need to possess when they graduate.

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