Schools are almost back in session which could negatively impact buisnesses

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Gusto claims that “After the onset of COVID-19,″ there was an increase in teen hiring every summer across the nation.

Nationwide, in June of 2022, teens made up 15% of all hires in the workplace.

In Rapid City, the pools are mainly worked by student workers, which caused them to close a few weeks early.

“In aquatics, we lose about 90% of our staff when the schools open for the year, between college and high school. So, we end up having to scale way back in our aquatics,” said Doug Lowe, recreation division manager.

Although the pools are open for the summer, one company is open from March to October, making it hard to schedule.

“It’s complicated, writing a schedule really anytime when we have 30 high school kids that have merits of different sports, activities, and school, even during the summer, it’s the worst game of Tetris you’ve ever played,” said Austin Brummer, owner of Armadillos Ice Cream.

Brummer stated he does hire all ages, but his main workers are high school and college students.

“I could not hire high school kids, but I like to. I like to be able to do that investment and take a personal invested-ness in them and help make them better, help give them skills that they can use those skills anywhere else throughout their life,” said Brummer.

The parks division of Rapid City hires students for the summer, but Scott Anderson, parks division manager, said they aren’t heavily impacted when school starts.

“It’s surprising that summer is almost over, so with that we lose our high school and college kids that we do have hired on, but generally this time of year we’re shutting things down anyway,” said Anderson.

According to Pew Research, “Young Americans tend to work in customer-facing industries.” Which were also the hardest hit during the pandemic.

For more information on Armadillos Ice Cream, click here.

For more information on the Recreation and Parks Division, click here.

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