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By Renée Ward, Founder & Executive Director Teens4Hire.org
© 2003 All rights reserved. www.teens4hire.org

Huntington Beach, CA, May 16, 2003—“This year retail jobs beat out fast-food and restaurant jobs as the top choice among teens for employment, says Renee Ward, founder and executive director of www.teens4hire.org, a national online Career Center for employers and teens in the high school and college age groups.

Teens4Hire.org received more than 6,000 responses to a poll completed in April 2003 on its site of where teens would like to work. The Top 10 categories are:

# 1. Retail (27%)
# 2. Fast-food and/or restaurant (20%)
# 3. Arts, Entertainment, Media (9%)
# 4. Sports and Recreation (6%)
# 5. Health Services (5%)
# 6. Customer Service/Call Center (4%)
# 7. Education, Training, Library (3%)
# 8. Computer software (3%)
# 9. Office, clerical (2%)
# 10. Accounting (1%)

“In 2002, health services did not make the rankings at all. We can attribute this dramatic change directly to the young adult health services recruitment campaign we started last year, “ says Ward. “It also demonstrates that teens want to branch out and find employment that may be better suited to their ultimate career goals.”

Potential employers should make a note of this. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey data, a majority of employers indicate that paid work experience and workplace mentoring, at 57 and 50 percent respectively, are the most effective means of addressing the skills gap issues within their industries.

For more information please visit www.teens4hire.org.

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