Scooping ice cream, lifeguarding at community pools, and restocking retail shelves have long been a teenage rite of passage—a first taste of real-world skills and earned pocket money. This year, however, teenagers are confronting the most challenging summer job market since the Great Recession. Securing a position at a neighborhood shop now feels nearly as difficult as landing a full-time corporate role.

"I didn't know it was going to be this hard. I thought it was going to be quite easy. And with all the applications I sent through, I feel a bit discouraged," Simon Chow, a 17-year-old from Montreal who spent months applying to dozens of summer gigs, told Fortune. "I'm looking everywhere, and I'll take anything at this point."

Approximately 790,000 jobs opened up for teenagers across May, June, and July of this year—down from roughly 801,000 in 2025—according to a recent report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. If the study's projections hold, this summer would mark the lowest level of teen hiring since 1948, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics first began tracking the data. The only other comparable low was in 2010, when the figure fell to 960,000 as the U.S. reeled from the Great Recession.

This year's numbers extend a structural decline that has been underway for decades. Teen summer employment peaked in the late 1970s, when more than half of 16- to 19-year-olds held summer jobs; by the mid-2010s, that share had fallen below 30%, according to BLS data analyzed by Pew Research Center. Economists attribute the long-term slide to a combination of factors: the rise of unpaid internships that favor families who can forgo wages, consolidation in retail and food service, automation of routine tasks, and growing competition from older workers and college students filling positions once largely reserved for teens.

Teenagers are now resorting to creative tactics to land minimum-wage summer positions. Like many older job seekers, they are playing a numbers game—firing off dozens of applications only to be ghosted. Others are reviving their parents' old-fashioned approach, walking into storefronts with resume in hand and an elevator pitch ready. After months of searching, several tough realities have emerged: securing a seasonal job in this market often demands connections, prior experience, and the persistence to keep putting oneself out there.

Research from labor economists has consistently linked teenage work experience to higher wages, greater employability, and stronger soft-skill development in adulthood—meaning a thin summer jobs market carries consequences well beyond lost pocket money.

Teenagers across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. told Fortune that this year's summer job market has been grim—but some are managing to find a way in.

Dozens of Applications, Met with Silence

The next generation of workers is exhausting every option and still coming up short.

Chow, who is preparing to attend Vanier College this fall, set out to squeeze in summer work after graduating high school in June. He says he applied to over 50 different seasonal jobs but was ghosted or rejected at every turn. Local restaurants and cafés had nothing to offer; emails went unanswered; even volunteer positions returned no response. He searched community centers, food kitchens, thrift stores, and strawberry farms, struggling to capture anyone's attention.

"The competition did get more competitive. Companies are looking for more experienced people," Chow said. "Some of my friends do have jobs, but I think it's because they have better connections… so I feel like it's easier for them to get jobs."

This week, Chow finally secured a summer job as a busboy after months of relentless applying. His training begins next week, and at the end of August he will head to college with plans to study veterinary medicine.

Samantha Rosaforte, a 19-year-old from Carmel, New York, shares a similar experience. Last fall, she began searching for marketing or communications positions in New York City, scouring listings on LinkedIn and Indeed. In total, she estimates she applied to around 80 summer jobs. Nearly all ghosted her, and few bothered to send rejections. By mid-April, she said she had "lost all hope completely" as the seasonal hiring window was closing.

"I started feeling like I'm not good enough for any company, because I can't even get past the resume stage," Rosaforte told Fortune. "I felt so helpless, like I have nothing. I don't know what else to do."

Then came a glimmer of hope: an email from a HelloFresh recruiter about a social media internship. After three rounds of hiring, she landed the position and now has one week remaining in the 10-week gig before starting her senior year at Clemson University. Reflecting on the grueling search, she plans to begin applying for entry-level roles even earlier as she completes her bachelor's degree.

Estelle Keeber, a digital marketing entrepreneur in the U.K., says her two sons have faced the same rocky market. Her eldest, 17-year-old Jed, has spent months applying to dozens of manual labor jobs, including construction, with no success. Her youngest, 15-year-old Obi, pivoted after his online search yielded nothing.

Keeber says it can be "quite soul destroying" for teenagers to search so long for entry-level work. Like his mother, her youngest has turned to entrepreneurship.

"Here in the U.K., 10 years ago, you could have a Saturday job [as a young teen]," Keeber told Fortune. "Now, because of health and safety, because of insurance, there's that barrier in the way as well to stop them from getting any sort of experience."

Old-Fashioned Tactics and Entrepreneurship Fill the Gap

Keeber's eldest son continues pounding the pavement as employers pull back on entry-level hiring. Meanwhile, her youngest built his own local enterprise. Obi has been repairing bicycles in his area for about two years and also handles garden landscaping for several homes each week, earning roughly £20 to £50 ($27 to $67.50) per visit. Keeber says he makes around £100 ($135) working up to 15 hours weekly.

Other teenagers are making their case in person or tapping into local work programs.

Luke Della Valle, an 18-year-old from Westport, Connecticut, earns $18 an hour at Sharkey's, a children's hair salon, sweeping floors and assisting hairstylists. He landed the job the old-fashioned way—walking up to the front counter and simply asking. While the handful of digital applications he submitted never received responses, the face-to-face approach paid off, as it's "a lot easier to turn people down if it's online instead of in person." Still, Della Valle says most employers "completely shut me down" when he inquired about seasonal work, as many wanted someone with experience willing to stick around, even for minimum-wage roles.

Sophia Smith, a rising high school junior, similarly secured her position at Ralph's Famous Italian Ices by asking in person. The 15-year-old is balancing two jobs this summer: for several weeks, she participates in New York City's Summer Youth Employment Program, available to young people aged 14 to 24 across the five boroughs. The program is one of the largest municipally funded youth employment initiatives in the United States, placing tens of thousands of young people in subsidized positions each summer and serving as a critical backstop as private-sector seasonal hiring contracts. The Staten Island resident earns approximately $700 through the program, working six hours a day, twice per week—including one day at the College of Staten Island. On the side, she blends milkshakes and scoops frozen confections for about $17 an hour, one day a week.

Reaching that point took persistence. Calling pizzerias and walking into coffee shops yielded little. But determination helped her land what she calls her "dream" summer job, and being in New York City improved her odds.

"You really have to go for it, just like I did… it is a little bit harder for us. You have to go in yourself," Smith told Fortune. "Don't even say anything. Just ask, 'Are you guys hiring?' … And the number one rule is stay in touch with them."

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.