Help Wanted: Ohio Teens Find It Harder Than Ever To Land A Job.

It's hard for anyone to find a job right now. But on this week's upside / downside one group's having an even harder time than most. For teens, finding a job is always harder. But in the recession, even the few jobs that normally go to the young and inexperienced are being snatched by workforce veterans. ideastream®'s Ida Lieszkovszky has this the latest installment in our ongoing series on unemployment...Help Wanted.

It's orientation day at LNE & Associates, a Cleveland job placement and training organization. Brittany Holmes patiently answers dozens of phone calls, and fields even more questions from the young job seekers that have come down in person for help.

Phone ringing.
Holmes: Thank you for calling LNE this is Brittany.

Holmes knows what they're going through, after all she was one of them not that long ago. She says she still remembers the day she found out about her internship at LNE.

Holmes: I got a postcard and I was running around the house like "˜ma, I got an orientation!'

LNE has two programs that focus on youth. One helps them land a paid internship to kick start their careers, another focuses on the job hunt as they rap up their GED studies - the equivalent of a high school degree.

These kids aren't just looking for a summer job; many of them are out of school and on their own, with obligations and bills to pay. Take for example 18 year old Yahaira DeJesus. She has 2 kids to care for, and she's been looking for a job for more than 2 years now.

DeJesus: I'll just drive around until "help wanted" or I'll just go inside places, ask "˜are you hiring? Can I get an application even if you're not hiring? Are you accepting applications?' Anything.

DeJesus says she's tried looking in the paper, but the job listings are sparse, and the web is full of false advertisers and scammers. She's set her sights on becoming a police officer one day. She says it's a steady job, and it'll help her protect her children. But it's tough to find a job that will help her get there.

DeJesus: Yeah it's getting harder because of the requirements that you need. You need a GED you need a diploma you need experience or something else. Everywhere is different.

And DeJesus isn't alone.

There are millions of young people in their teens and early 20s in a similar position.

As of September of 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that only 46% of people aged 16 - 24 had jobs. That's the lowest figure since the government began tracking these numbers in1948. In Ohio, the teen unemployment rate for October of 2009 was 30 percent - 3 times greater than the overall unemployment rate, according to the Washington D.C. based Employment Policies Institute. Senior research analyst Kristen Eastlick points out that teen unemployment isn't just a problem now; it's going to have consequences for years to come.

Eastlick: Not having that first job or even being delayed in having that first job, research has shown that that has an impact on your future economic successes as long as 5 years later.

Eastlick believes rising minimum wages are partly to blame for the high youth unemployment rates. She says as minimum wages go up, employers become more reluctant to hire young and inexperienced people.

Amy Hanauer, Executive Director of Policy Matters, an Ohio based policy research group, says she doesn't buy that argument. She blames the extraordinarily deep recession for making the job market tight for everyone.

But Hanauer does agree that struggling with unemployment early on can be very troublesome both in the short and long term.

Hanauer: When you have a recession like this it can really be problematic for young people because they don't have the work experience that could qualify them for unemployment compensation, they can't get the training that they want, and they're trying to establish their careers.

So where are all the jobs that were typically filled by the young and inexperienced?

Harter: Some of those jobs have actually been taken by older people.

Brian Harter is with Ohio Jobs and Family Services. He says employers have a huge number of older, more experienced people to choose from.

Harter: They've saturated the job market and they're out looking for any employment that they can find and those are at the expense of our youth.

Yahaira DeJesus says she's heard that before, way too many times. But, she says she's not about to give up.

DeJesus: Because of my kids, my kids always bring me up. And knowing I'm doing it for them it doesn't matter if it takes longer as long as I know my further goal is that and I'll complete it, it doesn't matter how long it takes.