The long-term downward trend for working teens continued in August 2026. The month saw the overall, seasonally adjusted number of teens Age 16-19 counted as having jobs come in at 5,373,000. While just 7,000 less than in July, that figure is 487,000 below the May 2024 peak.
Breaking the working teen demographic down into younger (Age 16-17) and older (Age 18-19) parts, the number of younger teens with jobs increased month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted 1,856,000, which is 505,000 below its peak from December 2022. Older teens with jobs however saw their seasonally adjusted number decline 95,000 from their level in July to 3,499,000, some 302,000 below their recent February 2025 peak.
Looking at the employed-to-population ratio of the working teen demographics, older teens still come out on top, with 41% of the Age 18-19 population employed, which is down from the December 2025 peak of 45.8%. Younger teens however have a bigger decline from their April 2022 employed-to-population percentage peak of 25.5%, dropping to 20.7% as of August 2026. This latter change is nearly equivalent to going from one in four teens Age 16-17 having jobs in April 2022 to just one in five as of August 2026.
The following pair of charts depicts the rise and fall of teen employment from January 2021 through August 2026.
Each of the data series shown in these charts are subjected to their own seasonal adjustment, which is why the employment numbers for the Age 16-17 portion of the teen population and the Age 18-19 portion won't necessarily add up to the figures indicated for the whole working Age 16-19 population.
Reference
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Labor Force Statistics (Current Population Survey - CPS). [Online Database]. Accessed: 4 September 2026.
Image Credit: Waitress talking between groups of people sitting at tables in a restaurant photo by Negley Stockman on Unsplash.
Labels: demographics, jobs
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