Without any seasonal adjustment, the number of working teens in the U.S. plummeted in August 2023.
The number of Age 16-19 year olds with jobs dropped by 496,000 from 6,542,000 to 6,046,000. Within that population, some 177,000 fewer younger teens (Age 16-17) were counted as having jobs, while 319,000 fewer older teens (Age 18-19) disappeared from the ranks of the employed.
Of course, large numbers like these are to be expected in the last month of summer, as the school season restarts and teens leave the labor force. Which is why the Bureau of Labor Statistics accounts for that annual event through its seasonal adjustments. After those adjustments, the BLS' data indicates teen employment ticked up in August 2023, but not by enough to counter 2023's established downward trends facing working teens.
The following chart presents the seasonally-adjusted employment levels and employment-to-population ratios for the Age 16-17, Age 18-19, and the combined Age 16-19 population.
Each of the data series presented in these charts has been subjected to its own seasonal adjustment, which is why adding the number of working Age 16-17 and Age 18-19 year olds at any point of time won't necessarily add up to the total for the combined Age 16-19 year old population.
Reference
Here's where you can get all the monthly jobs data, seasonally-adjusted or not, for working U.S. teens!
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Labor Force Statistics (Current Population Survey - CPS). [Online Database]. Accessed: 4 August 2023.
Image credit: Jobs for students tearoff flyer by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.